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Committees accept Attorney General edits and advance OHA funding bills while removing direct 20% statutory language

Joint hearing of the Committee on Hawaiian Affairs and the Committee on Water, Land, and Culture and the Arts (Senate) · March 25, 2026

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Summary

Lawmakers and OHA representatives debated temporary increases to the fixed PLT transfer and the mechanics of a constitutionally required 20% pro rata share. The Attorney General advised removing an immediate 20% statutory mandate pending the working group's inventory; the committees accepted AG amendments and advanced the measures with funding left blank for further work.

Senators considered multiple measures related to the public land trust and Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) funding on March 24, including proposals to temporarily increase the annual fixed payment to OHA and to expand the public land trust working group. OHA officials and public speakers urged prompt action, saying the current fixed payment falls well short of the constitutionally mandated 20% pro rata share and that funds already identified administratively could close the gap without affecting other state priorities.

Craig Yeehaw, deputy attorney general, told the committee the bill’s parallel requirement — that the payment equal at least 20% of incoming proceeds — is unworkable under current law because there are no legislative standards yet to calculate that 20%. The Attorney General recommended removing the explicit 20% clause and keeping the fixed-dollar change; the committee adopted that approach.

OHA representatives explained administrative accounting shows a trust account with approximately $55 million identified as PLT revenues that could cover interim increases. They urged the legislature to raise the fixed payment to better reflect expected pro rata shares while the working group finishes a comprehensive inventory and recommends a formal method to calculate the 20% share.

The committees agreed to accept the AG’s technical amendments, blanked the specific funding number to allow budget and working-group work to continue, and advanced the bills. Committee members emphasized the need to finish the working-group inventory and to produce implementable calculation methods for the pro rata share in future legislation.

The committee deferred final decision-making on related bills where additional information or technical fixes were needed but moved others forward with the AG edits and instructions for continued work.