2020 Legislative Session Gets Underway

Posted on Jan 21, 2020 in Featured, News

HONOLULU –In preparation for the 2020 Legislative Session, the House and Senate released a joint package of economic bills, strongly supported by the Ige Administration.  The bills focused on removing economic obstacles and improving the lives of Hawaiʻi’s working-class.
To address these concerns, the economic package includes:

  • Targeting tax relief for working class families and individuals,
  • Increasing the minimum wage,
  • Developing leasehold housing for the working class,
  • Providing tax exemptions for developers to build market priced homes,
  • Providing infrastructure for developments at or near rail stations,
  • Expanding childcare options for parents near their work places,
  • Creating a new Schools Facilities Agency and allow DOE to focus on education.

In his State of the State address, Governor Ige elaborated on this historic collaborative effort.
“…House and Senate leadership, community leaders and my administration got together to look for a better way of helping working families. We challenged each other to identify ways to take on reducing the cost of living for working families. We committed to a package of bills that was outlined last week in our joint press conference. We committed to shaping these bills and ushering them through the legislative process.  And we made a promise to make life better for our working families.”

This legislative session, ETS has two bills that were introduced as part of the governor’s package:

HB 2280SB 2836 Relating to Access Hawaii Committee
Gives agencies more flexibility and online options to provide enhanced digital services to the public in order to better serve the public and businesses.

HB 2281SB 2837  Relating to Information Technology Committee
Preserves the continuity of the Information Technology Steering Committee to properly administer 27-43, Hawaii Revised Statutes, while redefining the composition of the committee.

For the entire list of bills included in the Governor’s Package: Governor’s Package  For the list of bills in the Joint Package:  Legislative Joint Package

If you’d like to send in testimony on any bills, please go to https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/