Bills Relating to Public Hospitals, Affordable Housing Remain Alive

State Capitol building. Photo by Wendy Osher.

By Maui Now Staff

Measures relating to the state’s public hospitals, affordable housing, medical marijuana dispensaries, transparency in government and the state’s fiscal obligations are among the bills still alive this legislative session.

A total of 737 bills of the 1,515 bills originally introduced by House members in the 2015 legislature reached final committee by today’s first lateral deadline.

Among the bills that continue to move through the legislative process in the House include a measure to create medical marijuana dispensaries and production centers, and a bill that would require the Office of Elections to implement elections by mail.

Other measures would appropriate funds for the Kupuna Care Program and an Aging and Disabilities Resource Center, and another would require the UH Board of Regents to study the feasibility of selling or leasing the building that houses the Cancer Center.

In addition, other House bills that remain alive include those that: address invasive species, increase the tax credit for low-income household renters, make permanent the counties’ authority to establish a surcharge on state tax, limit compelled disclosure of sources or unpublished information by journalists (also known as a Shield Law), and enable the Hawaiʻi Health Connector to offer large group coverage.