Beginning with the - school year, requires public elementary, middle, and high schools to start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. Requires the Department of Education to adjust state-provided bus and school meal schedules accordingly.
Requires all places of public accommodation constructed after 12/31/2024 to provide universal changing accommodations in public restrooms. Where feasible and cost effective, requires all bids for state building construction, projects submitted after 6/30/2024 to provide universal changing accommodations in public restrooms.
Establishes a continuous Legislature. Requires the Legislature to convene at least once a month. Removes language regarding special sessions, adjournment, and recesses. Creates a two-year deadline for a bill to be submitted for gubernatorial consideration. Standardizes the number of days that the Governor must approve or veto a bill submitted for consideration. Requires the passage of the legislative budget within 45 days before the end of each fiscal year. Makes members of the Legislature subject to the sunshine law. Prohibits members of the Legislature from having employment other than their work as members of the Legislature.
Authorizes the Department of Land and Natural Resources to establish and operate conservation mitigation banks to restore, create, enhance, or preserve conservation habitats or resources as compensatory mitigation. Authorizes the Department of Land and Natural Resources to contract a third-party administrator for the operation of the mitigation banks. Clarifies the sale of credits involved in conservation mitigation banking. Defines "conservation mitigation bank".
Requires the Department of Health to construct, establish, and operate an environmental toxins testing laboratory to test samples submitted by the public for diseases; water, air, and soil quality; and complex testing. Allows the Director of Finance to issue general obligation bonds.
Imposes new security requirements for voting systems. Deems as election fraud certain acts relating to the provision of valuable consideration, including gifts and loans, for the purpose of bribery; election tampering; and security breaches. Appropriates moneys for video security surveillance recording equipment for the state's voting system. Declares that the appropriation exceeds the state general fund expenditure ceiling for fiscal year 2024-2025.
Establishes the Hawaiʻi Coastal Commission and the Shoreline Buyback Program, which permits the Commission to purchase eligible shoreline properties and make those properties available for affordable rental housing. Appropriates funds.
Eliminates biomass from the renewable portfolio standard definition of "renewable energy".
Requires a wastewater treatment plant to test sewage sludge and any other residual material for the presence of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. Requires the Department of Health to adopt administrative rules for the safe disposal and sequestration of sewage sludge and other residual material that contain any amount of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. Prohibits the issuance or renewal of permits if testing yields perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances in sewage sludge or other residual material on land used for agronomic purposes, on land where drainage tiles have been installed, on land that drains into waters of the State, or land in a five hundred-year floodplain.
Establishes the Hawaiʻi Cannabis Authority and Cannabis Control Board within the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to regulate all aspects of the cannabis plant. Beginning January 1, 2026, legalizes the personal adult use of cannabis. Establishes taxes for adult-use cannabis sales. Transfers the personnel and assets of the Department of Health and assets Department of Agriculture to the Hawaiʻi Cannabis Authority. Appropriates funds.
