Hawaii is floating another 1% tax on hotel and vacation rental stays to fund Hawaiian Home Lands. That is enough to get attention on its own. Starting Wednesday, Oct 15, you can also tell the state how to spend the new Green Fee dollars. Here is what the 1% would add, and what you can do right now.
What’s being proposed and why it matters now.
A new 1% add-on lodging has been floated to support a Hawaiian Home Lands fund. It is not law. It would still need a bill, hearings, and votes. After years of fee fatigue, politics look uphill, but the idea is public now, and it matters for anyone booking future Hawaii vacations.
The Hawaiian Home Lands program was created in 1921 to return native Hawaiians to ancestral lands. Today, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands manages about 200,000 acres and has over 28,000 applicants on the waiting list, many of whom have been waiting decades for homestead leases. The proposed 1% would fund infrastructure development, lot repairs, and farm loans to help move projects forward.
This lands as the Green Fee already begins in 2026. That means the question is not only about price, but also about proof of where the Green Fee money is going. If visitors are asked to pay more, what will they see for it. Which brings us to what you can do right now.
How 1% stacks on what you are already paying.
The Green Fee will already raise the state transient accommodations tax by 0.75% in 2026. A fresh 1% would be another layer on the same base. Readers keep telling us it all stacks up both financially and psychologically.
For context that has resonated with tens of thousands of you, see Visitors say Hawaii’s new fees cross the line and New Hawaii fees starting in 2026: The price of paradise. Also see Hawaii’s new 100m green fee council will decide visitors’ future.
The real dollars, not just percentages.
Example A: $300 a night. The Green Fee in 2026 is about $2.25 per night. The proposed 1% is about $3.00 per night. That’s $5.25 per night combined, or $36.75 on seven nights, before existing taxes and any property fees.
Example B: $500 a night. The Green Fee in 2026 is about $3.75 per night. The proposed 1% is about $5.00 per night. That’s $8.75 per night combined, or $61.25 on seven nights, before existing taxes and any property fees.
On its own, 1% will not break most trips. Instead, it becomes part of the bigger question. Is Hawaii getting better as prices rise?
Your chance to influence Green Fee spending opens Wednesday.
From October 15 through November 1, the Green Fee Advisory Council is taking public ideas on how to spend Green Fee dollars. If you are paying more anyway, this is where you get a voice in how it is being used.
The Green Fee Advisory Council will open submissions on its website starting October 15. The council will gather input, set priorities, and then the Legislature will decide final appropriations. This will be an ideas intake process.
How to submit ideas and what qualifies.
Green Fee money can only be used for environmental stewardship, infrastructure resilience, hazard mitigation, and sustainable tourism. Funds must go to state agencies or counties, which can partner with local organizations to deliver projects.
What helps visitors directly and keeps access reliable? Start with beach restoration on specific stretches, with clear timelines. Add lifeguard staffing and towers at high-use beaches. Prioritize trail repair with safety signage where injuries keep occurring. Clean, reliable bathrooms at popular parks also rank high. You can choose to keep your ideas specific regarding place, outcome, timetable, and the agency that could execute them. For accountability context, see If other places made their green fees work, why can’t Hawaii?
What visitors should expect to see for the money.
Readers repeatedly tell us they support paying more when they can see the outcome. One wrote, “I would be more than happy to pay the Green Fee if I knew the funds would go to helping beaches from erosion or supporting the reef systems.” Another told us, “If visitors do not see some obvious improvements, it could turn into a very big negative.”
If lawmakers want visitors to help fund this vital work, showing projects with locations and dates, and publishing audits that anyone can read, will go a long way. We will keep pressing for visible results, not just promises.
Will the 1% actually pass.
Everyone is just absorbing the upcoming 2026 change. Many residents and visitors are split on whether visitors should pay yet again. If lawmakers advance the 1%, it would likely align with the 2026 Green Fee administration timeline. For now, it is a proposal, not a law.
Budget a small cushion in case the 1% moves.
The Green Fee is real, and it starts in less than 90 days. The 1% add, however, is merely a proposal for now. The Green Fee input window is opening for your input on Wednesday. This deserves your attention because it will help shape future Hawaii trips.
Tell us what you think.
Does the .75% or the 1% change your plans, or not? If you had a vote on Green Fee spending, what project would you fund first, and where? We will be tracking the progress and keeping you updated on the Green Fee input process.
Get Breaking Hawaii Travel News
Only Hawaii would bleed tourists through taxes and fees while simultaneously complaining about them.
The first reaction to any problem is “How can we make the tourists pay for this?”
All the while claiming that they aren’t dependent on tourism.
Hawaiian Homes financing and development being paid for with a visitor and tourist fee?! I’m not really seeing the connection. At some point the residents of Hawai’i are going to have to start paying for this and other non-visitor related issues themselves. I suppose that there is a fat chance of that happening as it is doubtful that a politician in the state is going to vote for an increase in the general property tax, an increase in the sales tax, an increase in other resident fees such as vehicle registration or drivers licenses, etc.
Sooner or later IMO Hawaii will tax tourists to a point where visitors won’t come and force the the island residents to be extinct. Without tourists Hawaii will have to tax businesses more and all services to residents. The state I live in don’t play the entitled Hawaiian card or the this is our land card. Therefore the free train ride ticket just expired. IMO accept and welcome your island visitors before you might wish you did differently. If prices increase the only way a tourist comes back is in 100% the way they are treated.
You’re fooling yourself if you think the tourists that have been milked over the years will come to Hawaii and expect them to pay more. Step outside of Waikiki, you see broken and uneven sidewalks, all types of wheeled bikes that should be on the road, a $14 charge for a piece of carrot cake at a local restaurant, and a $20 glass of wine served in a plastic cup, and just three chain grocery stores to shop in. Oh, yeah, they’ll be happy to come here to pay more for less!
It’s not the fees themselves that change my plans, it’s the never ending addition of fees and nothing to see for them. We traveled to Maui and Hawaii in April/May this year for a total of 20 nights and the lodging alone was $11,800 including tax, cleaning fees, admin fees etc. On Hawaii there was an extra charge of $130 per day for the Beach Club so that was another $1170. On Maui, the resort fee was $35 per night adding an additional $350. Total for both stays was $13,320 which is an average of $1332 per night. Both island accommodations were condos. Then add in the airfare, rental car and groceries and dining out. This also does not include any activities or parking charges. This was far and away the most expensive trip the islands and we have been coming every year since 2012 only missing 2020 due to Covid. As it stands, we are not returning next year because the cost has skyrocketed. I cannot justify this high $ expense again.
Keep taxing the golden egg…you’ll see what happens. Complete buffoonery happening right now. Vote these clowns out. Someone in government take a math class please.
Great! Bring it on! Keep hitting the tourists and travelers with More taxes and fees, we’re already moving on to other beaches and places!
Was going to book a place in Kauai and the North Shore taxes and fees was almost equal to what the cost of the place was! This forced us to stay at another beachfront resort where they actually want us to come back! But you keep sitting in those conference rooms and spend resident and visitor taxes without clarity, just don’t be disappointed when we come once every few years versus once a year!
I’ll eventually make it back to the islands but not for awhile.
Mahalo and good luck!
In Maui for a short term rental, we pay 17.75% in taxes on every dollar charged to guests. Owners of short-term rentals pay a ridiculous amount in property. tax. A 650 square foot condo is about $10,000 a year in property taxes. If we keep increasing our taxes, we will end up like Las Vegas resulting in a massive downturn in visitors. We already have quite a downturn in visitors.
Every time there is an increase in accommodation there are less and less visitors coming here. Basically the more you increase the less people come the less money you receive.
I find this latest fee proposal offensive and disrespectful. Apart from being an outright money grab, since when is it my responsibility, as a tourist who is very much considered an outsider, to fund the return of native lands to those thousands on the waiting list? Those leases, btw, are given out at way below market value rates. What, if anything, does this have to do with improving anything for the tourist? Are tourists now going to be expected to be part of the tax base? The natives don’t want us on their islands, but they sure want our money!
Tourists Accomodations Tax which hotels charge tourists to help the homeless of Hawaii equaling 18.5% total tax plus this 1% Homeland tax to keep Hawaii a homeland. Crazy. Why not imposes a lava flow tax to keep the volcanoes flowing? Don’t people know these islands were formed before any native Hawaiian’s even were in existence with their cultures and beliefs. Sometimes IMO these views get a little bit extreme when the tourist’s end up paying for all the island upkeep, sewers, parks, and the residents get a free ride just because of island life is unaffordable for residents.
In Maui for a short term rental, we pay 17.75% in taxes on every dollar charged to guests. Owners of short-term rentals pay a ridiculous amount in property tax. A 650 square foot condo is about $10,000 a year in property taxes. If we keep increasing our taxes, we will end up like Las Vegas resulting in a massive downturn in visitors. We already have quite a downturn in visitors. Every time there is an increase in accommodation there are less and less visitors coming here. Basically the more you increase the less people come the less money you receive.
As a vacation rental owner, it appears the state is working toward taxing themselves out of the tourist destination business by making it more expensive to visit Hawaii. The trend is already starting to be indicated by the statistics on tourism to the state.
“The Hawaiian Home Lands program was created in 1921 to return native Hawaiians to ancestral lands. Today, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands manages about 200,000 acres and has over 28,000 applicants on the waiting list, many of whom have been waiting decades for homestead leases. The proposed 1% would fund infrastructure development, lot repairs, and farm loans to help move projects forward.” And visitors should pay this why???? Absolutely not. I’m sorry, my ancestors are turning over in their graves. Is this another way for the State of Hawai’i to hold onto control? Do what we want or you don’t get the funds. If someone gets Homestead lands, they will work it out. Visitors are not the reason the program is so badly run.
Another tax increase? I know some will say it’s a “D” or “R” thing, but it’s not. It’s a political thing. The mind set that “We” won’t be paying this, only the “Theys” will. I live in high tourist location and I see it all the time. The other article on this site “Hawaii is losing its best Visitors” points out, the well is not bottomless.
As for the Green Fee. The money must go to places that visitors go. This will also be benefit locals, but visitors need to see that the money they are being forced to pay is actually being used to make things better for everyone.
My question is why would they pass a green fee tax? If they don’t even know how they would spend it? It’s crazy to think that they would say let’s make a tax and then figure out how to spend the extra money. There’s already so much waste and fraud in our government.
They already know how the dollars will be allocated.
It’s the visitors and taxpayers who don’t.
Online suggestion portal = digital trash can.