As the halfway point of 2026 approaches, a bevy of new laws are set to take effect.
Here’s some of the new state laws to look out for starting July 1:
Shipping costs will likely increase
Gov. Josh Green signed in May Senate Bill 2694, a measure authorizing annual automatic cost adjustments for interisland shippers for the next several years.
While interisland shippers — which, in effect, means Young Brothers LLC — have had to apply for approval from the Public Utilities Commission for any rate changes, starting in July, the PUC can develop and apply a “water carrier inflationary cost index automatic adjustment mechanism,” which will apply annual cost adjustments without any need for applications.
Those adjustments cannot be more than 5% each year, and are intended to reflect annual changes to the Department of Transportation’s wharfage rates.
The automatic adjustments are scheduled to go into effect July 1 of each year through 2032.
Your jet ski joyrides are going to cost more
Senate Bill 2818, signed into law as Act 58, increases penalties for various nautical misadventures, including:
• Violating speed restrictions on a boat or jet ski,
• Reckless or careless operation of a vessel or jet ski,
• Operating a vessel or jet ski without valid safety education or insurance coverage,
• Unauthorized mooring of a vessel or jet ski,
• Operating a vessel or jet ski while intoxicated,
• Serving, selling, drinking or possessing alcohol within state small boat harbors or boating facilities,
• Abandoning an animal within state small boat harbors or boating facilities,
And more.
Each of these violations will be considered a petty misdemeanor and will incur fines of up to $1,000 and a possible jail term of up to 30 days.
Your fish market must tell you where your ahi comes from
Lawmakers were concerned in 2025 that, due to a loophole in seafood labeling requirements, vendors were not disclosing the country of origin for ahi tuna products.
Because of this, lawmakers found that a substantial percentage of ahi products sold in Hawai‘i claim to be “prepared fresh” or “locally made” despite using foreign-caught and pre-frozen ahi.
Consequently, 2025’s Act 238 requires large retailers selling any raw processed ahi in Hawai‘i to include a label stating the fish’s country of origin.
You can take family leave if a family member is deployed
Currently, Hawai‘i's family leave statutes does not align with federal family leave laws, which have allowed spouses, children or parents of active-duty military members to take family leave when those family members are deployed overseas.
Act 13, which Green signed into law in May, changes this. Beginning in July, employees with military spouses, children, siblings, grandchildren or parents will be allowed four weeks of family leave per year for “qualifying military exigencies,” a phrase that refers to a person’s active-duty deployment to a foreign country.
Anyone claiming said family leave will be required to provide a copy of official military orders for documentation.
Your building permits could come through faster
A bill passed in 2025 allows people applying for building permits for single-family and multi-family housing projects to request to have their permits expedited.
Starting July 1, an applicant can send a request to their county for an expedited permit if 60 days have passed since the initial complete application without the county’s approval.
Eligible projects must not be located within flood hazard areas or on storm-vulnerable shoreline parcels, and must still be stamped by licensed engineers.
The expedited process is temporary; however, by July 1, 2031, it will be repealed.
Your charitable donations will have a clear destination
House Bill 1810, now Act 112, requires solicitors that collect donated property such as clothes to disclose where those donations are actually going.
While people may believe that the items they donate actually directly go to charities, this isn’t always the case. In many cases, the solicitor merely sells the items, and donates some or all of the proceeds from that sale to the charities.
Act 112 requires solicitors to clearly disclose who operates a given collection receptacle and whether the donated items will be sold and the proceeds paid to a charitable organization. It also requires those solicitors to inform users as applicable whether their donations are tax-deductible contributions.
Said solicitors are also required to provably pay proceeds to a charitable organization within 45 days.
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