It was a big week for new laws in Hawai‘i after Gov. Josh Green signed more than two dozen bills between Monday and Friday.
In addition to a vape ban and funding for colon cancer screenings, the new laws Green ratified this week include:
Relief for medical debt
Senate Bill 3025, which Green signed on Thursday, establishes a “Medical Debt Acquisition and Forgiveness Program” that will allow certain residents to apply to have their medical debt bought by the state.
According to the bill, people with a household income no greater than four times the state’s federal poverty level, and whose medical debt is no more than 5% of their household income, could have their debt forgiven by the state. Green’s office announced Thursday that this could include as many as 50,000 residents throughout the state.
The state Office of Wellness and Resilience has been issued $500,000 to stand up the program by mid-2028, and will partner with an unspecified nonprofit to purchase the debt from health care providers.
More programs to stop human trafficking
On Tuesday, Green signed House Bill 1960, which requires the Department of the Attorney General to develop training programs to better help workers identify the signs of human trafficking and how to report it.
The training programs would be specifically aimed at employees in the transient accommodation sector — hotels, motels, vacation rentals, and the like — which are common venues for sex trafficking. By December 2027, every employer in the sector will need to have approved trafficking training and policies available to employees.
Get sued for leaking nudes
HB 1682, also signed Tuesday, makes “unauthorized disclosure of intimate images” liable for civil action by the person in those images.
The measure allows a person whose nudes were leaked to sue the leaker for damages related to emotional distress, or statutory damages up to $10,000, whichever is greater. However, it also establishes a statute of limitations: the plaintiff cannot sue more than eight years the leak was discovered “or should have been discovered with … reasonable diligence.”
On the other hand, the statute of limitations is extended dramatically in the case of a person who was a minor when the photos were leaked: in that case, the plaintiff can sue up to 32 years after their 18th birthday.
Those Bitcoin kiosks are going away
Green signed on Thursday HB 1642, which prohibits the ownership of a “digital financial asset transaction kiosk.”
The measure finds that such kiosks — whereby users can buy and sell digital assets such as cryptocurrencies — are “a significant risk to the financial security of the residents of the state.” It notes that they are often used as the transfer point of scams targeting older residents: the scammer poses as a legitimate person or agency and urges the victim to withdraw money from their bank account and send it to the scammer’s crypto wallet via the kiosks.
The bill, therefore, makes it illegal to own, operate or manage such kiosks after Oct. 1. However, kiosks allowing the exchange of one digital asset for another, or for U.S. currency are still allowed.
You can still be charged if you bribed a public official up to nine years ago
SB 2494 extends the statute of limitations for bribery by three years.
According to the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, the federal statute of limitations for bribery offenses is up to five years: two years after the official leaves office, with an additional extension of up to three more years.
The bill, which Green signed Friday, now makes bribery prosecutable up to nine years after the offense.
Cesspool conversion assistance
Green signed Wednesday HB 1618, which establishes a Cesspool Conversion Revolving Loan Fund that allows homeowners to apply for financial assistance to cover the cost of converting a cesspool on their property to a clean wastewater system.
The management of that loan program is not specified within the bill, although it states that low-interest loans would be available to “eligible” households. The bill also allocates about $200,000 to stand up the program.
Another five years of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits
HB 1920, which Green signed Wednesday, extends the state’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit — whereby housing are eligible for significant tax deductions if they rent a certain percentage of their housing units to low-income households — until 2032. It was previously set to end next year.
The measure also allows all credits issued after July 1 to be transferred to any taxpayer, which Green’s office said will grant developers additional flexibility in how they create additional housing.
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