As the 2026 legislative session draws to a close, state lawmakers have approved dozens of new bills this week.
Some of the latest proposals to await Gov. Josh Green’s signature include:
Nickels and dimes, but no pennies
Senate Bill 3255 would reduce loose change after cash transactions by requiring that all payments in cash be rounded up or down to the nearest five cents.
The bill notes that the U.S. Treasury stopped minting the penny last November, which has reduced the number of pennies in circulation, leading to a shortage for businesses throughout the state. Therefore, the bill would round up or down cash transactions so that exact change can be provided without requiring pennies.
As written, the measure would have any transaction amount ending with one, two, six or seven cents rounded down to the nearest sum ending in zero or five. Totals ending in three, four, eight or nine would be rounded up.
However, any transaction total of only one or two cents would also be rounded up to one nickel.
Only four lawmakers — representatives Diamond Garcia and Christopher Muraoka, and senators Brenton Awa and Joy San Buenaventura — voted against the measure Wednesday. Although they did not speak on the floor Wednesday, Awa had said during conference committees in April that he preferred a previous version of the bill that would have also required all in-person merchants to accept cash as payment.
The bill would take effect on July 1.
Cold shoulders
Driving on the shoulder of a road will become illegal under SB 2697, and violating that law would incur a fine of $250 for a first offense, and up to $1,000 for a subsequent offense within five years.
The only exceptions to the law would be for authorized emergency vehicles responding to a call, as state statutes already allow for.
The bill also allows for the counties to impound vehicles if they have an expired registration of one or more consecutive years.
The bill received some pushback Wednesday. Representatives Garcia, David Alcos, Kim Coco Iwamoto and Elijah Pierick voted against it, as did senators Awa, San Buenaventura, Kurt Fevella, Jarrett Keohokalole and Samantha DeCorte.
During an April meeting of the House Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, Garcia voiced skepticism for the measure, saying he had “a lot of misgivings with how all of this is going to work.” Several City and County of Honolulu agencies had testified regarding the measure, warning that the impoundment clause of the measure will be difficult to implement.
The bill will take effect immediately if Green signs it.
No more hidden fees
Sellers of short-term lodging or live-event tickets would be required to tell prospective customers the actual price for their goods, instead of surprising them with undisclosed fees that hike the total price up, under SB 2031.
Sellers would also need to prominently disclose any fees imposed on a transaction and explain their purpose.
The measure is a follow-up to a 2025 ruling by the Federal Trade Commission, which prohibited such “bait-and-switch pricing” and other tactics to mislead customers about how much they will pay. The bill uses the language of that ruling to enhance the state’s own consumer protection laws.
The bill passed both chambers unanimously Wednesday. If Green signs it, it will take effect immediately.
Home security and the cops
Senate Bill 888 prohibits smart household security devices from sharing user data with law enforcement agencies without the user’s consent.
The bill is a response to reports of law enforcement agencies accessing footage from devices such as Amazon’s Ring doorbell cameras without the consent of the cameras’ owners. As written, it prohibits the devices’ operators — the company that develops the products and maintains their user account data — from sharing any device user data with law enforcement unless the user consents in writing, or the agency has a judicial warrant requiring the handover of that data.
The bill also allows for exceptions for emergency situations such as an abduction or a hostage situation, so long as the data is reasonably believed to prevent the loss of life or limb, and if securing a warrant would take too long to help.
Any operator that violates the law would be deemed an unfair or deceptive act under the state’s commerce statutes, and would be liable for a suit by the state Attorney General.
Only one lawmaker, Rep. Elle Cochran, voted against the measure on Wednesday.
If Green signs the measure, it goes into effect July 1.
Get out of the truck, kids
Keiki under 16 would be prohibited from riding in the bed of a pickup truck under House Bill 1692.
While current law allows children over the age of 12 to ride in the back of a pickup truck, HB 1692 would increase that limit to those under 16. The bill makes no changes to the penalties for such a violation, which are $50 for each instance.
The bill also requires drivers to slow down and give space to vehicles stopped on the roadway or shoulder. As written, a driver approaching a stopped vehicle that is displaying warning signs such as hazard lights, road flares, traffic cones and the like must slow to “a reasonable and prudent speed” as possible, and make a change to an adjacent lane if possible.
If a driver fails to slow and give appropriate space to a stopped vehicle and causes death or injury, the driver would be charged with negligent homicide or injury.
Cochran, Iwamoto, Awa, DeCorte and Fevella voted against the measure.
Should Green sign the bill, it will take effect immediately.
While all of these bills have reached Green’s desk and await his signature, he could still move to veto any of them. The governor will release a list of bills he intends to veto by June 30; any bill he does not veto will become law, with or without his signature, by July 15.
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