Establishes the Ombudsman's Office for Homeowners Insurance within the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. Establishes the Ombudsman's Office for Homeowners Insurance Special Fund. Appropriates funds.
Amends the duties of the Hawaii Tourism Authority to focus on marketing and branding, rather than destination management and regenerative tourism. Establishes the Tourism Liaison Officer position within the Office of the Governor. Includes destination management and regenerative tourism as responsibilities of the Tourism Liaison Officer. Appropriates funds.
Maddy summaryHB 2402 creates a new misdemeanor offense for promoting gambling in the third degree. This bill directly affects individuals or businesses that actively encourage or facilitate gambling activities, such as operating unlicensed betting services. The key provision establishes a specific criminal penalty for these promotion activities, making them punishable as a misdemeanor under state law. The bill is currently in its early stages, having been introduced on January 27, 2026, and referred to committee on February 2, 2026.
Requires hotelkeepers to supply and provide annual training on the proper use and limitations of a panic button to certain workers no later than 1/1/2027.
Requires the University of Hawaii System to implement a financial literacy program offered at all campuses at no cost to students. Appropriates funds.
Requires the Chief Data Officer to enhance the State's open data portal website through the phased development and publishing of an artificial intelligence chatbot and necessary data visualizations on statewide shared data sets to assist the public in navigating the open data portal website and finding information about statewide services across state departments and agencies. Requires the Chief Data Officer to develop a system to evaluate and select for procurement artificial intelligence governance tools for use by state departments and agencies and establish a mechanism for reporting and publication of artificial intelligence use cases and artificial intelligence vendors used by the departments and agencies. Appropriates funds.
Requires the Department of Human Services to record any child welfare interview conducted by the Department when administering certain child welfare services. Requires the Department to store the recordings for a minimum of five years and under certain conditions. Prohibits the sharing of the recordings unless certain conditions are met. Establishes criminal penalties for violating prohibitions against sharing of the recordings.
Establishes the Ombudsman's Office for Condominium Associations within the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. Updates the Condominium Property Act to integrate the role and functions of the ombudsman's office for condominium associations. Appropriates funds from the Condominium Education Trust Fund for establishment of the Ombudsman's Office for Condominium Associations.
Requires the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation to develop and maintain comprehensive Housing Equity Dashboard on the Corporation's website that provides annual public reporting on certain statistics regarding affordable housing production. Appropriates funds.
Requires the Department of Human Services to establish a Medicaid buy-in program for workers with disabilities. Requires the Department to adopt rules.
