Hawaii Becomes First State to Introduce a Climate Change Tax on Visitors
On Tuesday, Democrat Governor of Hawaii Josh Green signed the first climate change tax in the United States into law.
The new law is being deemed as a “green fee” and will be placed on Hawaii Island tourists in an effort, lawmakers claim, to make tourists pay their share for their carbon footprint.
Green, while signing the new law, stated, “It’s important so people see that where we have shoreline erosion near hotels, we’re able to protect these incredible assets.”
”Where we have people being displaced, we’re able to help them, where we see sea level rise coming up, we can adapt and we can actually have these resources from the hard monies and also likely bonds from these dollars to help us go forward with large projects as the legislature sees fit as the people across our state express need,” added Green.
The new law will begin in January of next year and will consist of placing a 0.75% tax on visitors staying at hotels and rentals.
Hawaii to become first state to charge visitors a climate fee @JeremyYurow https://t.co/CeTuQMSYqP
— Courthouse News (@CourthouseNews) May 28, 2025
Per Hawaii News Now:
Gov. Josh Green on Tuesday signed into law the country’s first-ever lodging tax to get tourists to pay their share of the impacts of climate change.
State officials and environmentalists touted the first-of-its-kind “green fee” as landmark legislation that other states can model for building disaster resiliency.
“It’s important so people see that where we have shoreline erosion near hotels, we’re able to protect these incredible assets,“ Green said.
”Where we have people being displaced, we’re able to help them, where we see sea level rise coming up, we can adapt and we can actually have these resources from the hard monies and also likely bonds from these dollars to help us go forward with large projects as the legislature sees fit as the people across our state express need.“
Starting Jan. 1, visitors staying at Hawaii hotels and short-term rentals will have to pay an added 0.75% to the existing transient accommodations tax (TAT).
Hawaii now penalizes tourists. https://t.co/IgMrrBtEN2
— Sean Curran (@SeandeLanza) May 28, 2025
The new law will also be aimed at cruise ship passengers who will pay a prorated tax for the number of days their cruise ship is in a Hawaii port.
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