Fire prevention, housing top priorities as new lawmaking session gets underway

Fires — whether they be wildfires or aerial fireworks — are top of mind for many lawmakers as they prepare for this year’s lawmaking session, beginning Wednesday at the state Capitol in Honolulu.

That’s because of two recent events: the ongoing, out-of-control wildfires in Los Angeles that stir up traumatic memories from Maui’s Lahaina and Upcountry wildfires in August 2023; and the New Year’s Eve fireworks explosion that killed at least four people, including a 3-year-old boy, and left 20 injured.

Lawmakers have an opportunity to craft legislation that takes lessons learned and protects the public from future tragedies.

Assistant Majority Whip Troy Hashimoto (Wailuku, Kahului, Waihe‘e, Waikapū Mauka and Wai‘ehu) said lawmakers will try, again, this year to pass bills to deter fireworks.

“It is not for a lack of trying over the time I have been in office, but the recent accident in Honolulu puts a sense of urgency in action needing to happen,” Hashimoto said. “Enforcement of our laws is key. It is important that the State and County law enforcement continue coordination through our State Illegal Fireworks Task Force. Through their work, recommendations to the Legislature have been made to consider creating a full-time criminal investigation unit within to confront the problem on a permanent basis.”

The unit has only two full-time investigators, and “more resources are needed to pursue this pervasive problem,” he said, adding that he’s “very supportive” of investing $1.26 million in the unit, calling it “worth the investment.”

Sen. Angus McKelvey (West and South Maui, Mā‘alaea and Waikapū), who chairs the Government Operations Committee, said that curbing fireworks is very much on lawmakers’ minds, not only with the deadly Salt Lake explosion, but with other New Year’s Eve incidents that resulted in hospitalizations.

The biggest problem is enforcement, he said, aside from inspections of incoming cargo at harbors and airports that’s “really not all that it’s cracked up to be.”

“There is zero enforcement on any island for illegal aerials,” McKelvey said.

He said he wants to resurrect a bill to create a private cause of action to make anyone setting off illegal fireworks civilly liable. “You can take them to court, and the amount of evidence needed to prevail is not as stringent as it is in criminal court, which is why I think there’s so little enforcement, because none of these things really ever get taken up by the prosecutor’s office, because there’s no evidence that can withstand beyond a reasonable doubt,” McKelvey said.

If people faced civil lawsuits for setting off illegal fireworks, “then you’re not going to get away scot-free because your neighbors who you’re endangering, like in Salt Lake, could suffer harm and injury and death,” he said. “It’s an idea that Texas and California have used. I’m hoping it might provide some way of an impetus to get some kind of action and resolution.”

McKelvey also is looking at adding a nominal $1-per-container licensing fee to beef up inspections of cargo at ports. Because it’s a licensing fee, that removes an expectation of privacy and cargo can be inspected at docks without warrants.

In the state House of Representatives, Justin Woodson (Kahului, Pu‘unēnē and portion of Wailuku), who chairs the Education Committee and is vice chair of the Higher Education Committee, said fines for illegal aerial fireworks are already set pretty high for offenders.

“The challenge to me, is really logistical,” Woodson said. “And by that I mean that we need to provide better tools, both legal process tools and maybe for our police officers, better tools to try to prevent and catch some of these bad actors.”

The Legislature is looking at supporting new technology to help track and trace the routes of illegal fireworks as they come into the state, he said.

Another challenge is having potentially neighbors called into court to testify against a neighbor alleged to have set off illegal fireworks, Woodson said. “You know, the relationships (among neighbors) are strong, so that really hasn’t been a good means to prevent these things from happening.

Another policy prescription, mentioned by Hawaiʻi Attorney General Anne Lopez, is to remove the requirement for prosecutors to provide the number of pounds of fireworks possessed by a person alleged to have set off illegal fireworks.

“That’s what I mean broadly when I say, take a look at some of the legal processes to see how we can make it easier for our law enforcement officers,” Woodson said.

For wildfire prevention, McKelvey said lawmakers want to strengthen the state fire marshals office. “We passed a bill last year for a fire marshal, but it duplicates a lot of what the county firefighters do.”

So, the focus might shift to giving the state fire marshal powers of enforcement not only for wildfires, but for vegetation management violations. The powers would enable the fire marshal to deploy and support efforts to inspect or enforce the fire code on state properties, he said.

McKelvey said recent events have produced the political will to seriously tackle curbing illegal fireworks, “but the devil’s in the details, right?”

Another hot topic for lawmakers is addressing Hawaiʻi’s ongoing housing shortage, a long-term problem that has been pushed to a crisis on Maui after thousands of homes were lost in a matter of hours in the August 2023 wildfires.

Hashimoto, who’s vice chair of the Senate Housing Committee, said he plans to introduce legislation to expand creative financing tools for housing projects and to support the infusion of additional funding into the state budget for regional housing infrastructure projects that have typically been pushed onto private developers.

“My overall focus for the 2025 legislative session will be to continue giving our residents the best shot at staying in Hawaiʻi,” he said. “This includes tackling the biggest cost driver, housing, along with ensuring we have meaningful workforce opportunities.”

Woodson said some options for improving affordable housing opportunities include providing tax credits and finding ways to cut down on redundancies in state and county regulations.

“We can create housing in a way that’s responsible and is approved by the communities, but the cost and the barriers to produce these affordable housing units are significant now,” he said. “When you speak to professionals, experts that do construction that do development, they say that the process for building affordable housing or market housing in Hawaiʻi is the most difficult.”

McKelvey said he was hopeful Maui wildfire survivors will see housing with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s release of $1.64 billion in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds.

“That’s a huge chunk of money that the county can deploy to help us,” said McKelvey, who also lost his home in the Lahaina wildfire.

Much of the work will fall on Maui County, which will approve building permits, water, occupancy, plans to build or not,” he said.

“What we’re trying to do on our end is provide more money for the Rental Housing Trust Fund,” McKelvey said. “I’m putting forth a bill, kind of a carrot and stick, to try to incentivize people to rent more long term. What it does is allows Maui County, or any county, to set a rent controlled price, which could be adjusted by the cost of living. However, if you agree to rent at that rate, that you can still rent beyond that rate, but if you read or rent at that rate or lower, then you would be able to get a tax credit.”

Woodson said another way to help people with their cost of living is to assist by expanding pre-schools for pre-kindergartners. “We can take that cost off of their plates, and that’s a lot of income for them,” he said.

The goal is to provide early educational opportunities to 3- and 4-year-olds to have very high quality pre-school, pre-kindergarten, virtually for free, Woodson said.

“We’re making progress toward that goal, and that’s a high priority that I’m going to continue to support this year in the Legislature,” he said.

Lawmakers are also looking for chokepoints in the housing approval process, and one of those, on the state level, is the State Office of Historic Preservation, which reviews construction projects to ensure cultural resources, such as iwi, are preserved and not desecrated.

McKelvey and Woodson said the division needs more staff archaeologists. McKelvey said he’s looking at a bill to set aside one staff member to be assigned for three or more years to assist with rebuilding in West Maui.

For higher education, Hashimoto said he’ll be pushing to get the University of Hawaiʻi Maui College to expand its bachelor’s degree programs, “the lowest-hanging fruit is being able to get a four-year nursing degree here on Maui.”

“Currently, students are only able to obtain two-year degrees,” he said. “Students must be able to receive a meaningful education right here on Maui.”

“I also plan to continue supporting our public schools with facility upgrades and to support the county in its disaster recovery efforts,” Hashimoto said.