Relating To The Public Land Trust Working Group.
SB1600 appropriates $1,000,000 from general revenues for fiscal year 2025-2026 and another $1,000,000 for fiscal year 2026-2027 to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) to support the Public Land Trust Working Group (PLTWG). The funds may be used for hiring staff, purchasing equipment, and retaining specialized professional services, and purchases made with the appropriation are exempt from Hawaii’s procurement chapter 103D. The bill takes effect July 1, 2025.
The measure is framed as a follow-up to prior legislation establishing and directing the PLTWG to account for all ceded lands in the public land trust, all income and proceeds from the trust, and the annual 20 percent pro rata share owed to OHA for the betterment of Native Hawaiians. The bill’s findings emphasize concerns that existing land and revenue inventories are incomplete, self-reported, and unaudited, and that a third-party review is needed to verify the completeness and accuracy of the Public Land Trust Information System (PLTIS) and the annual Act 178 revenue report. It also cites the need to evaluate how submerged lands, parcels without tax map key numbers, federal lands, and the “rule of thumb” for identifying ceded parcels are treated in the inventory and accounting process.
If enacted, SB1600 would increase state spending and direct those funds to OHA for PLTWG-related work, while also creating a procurement exemption for the purchases made with the appropriation. The bill does not itself change the underlying public land trust statutes, the Admission Act, or OHA’s statutory share, but it supports additional auditing, inventory, and consulting work intended to improve implementation of existing public trust obligations under chapter 10, Hawaii Revised Statutes, Act 54, Act 178, and Act 226. Its practical effect would be to fund independent professional review of land and revenue records that may influence future accounting, reporting, and policy decisions regarding ceded lands and trust proceeds.
The bill appears generally supportive of Native Hawaiian trust-accounting efforts and of strengthening oversight of the public land trust. The findings present the measure as necessary to fulfill the State’s trust responsibilities and to address gaps in prior inventories and financial reviews. Because there were no committee transcripts or recorded votes provided, there is no direct evidence of opposition or amendment debate in the available materials, but the bill’s tone suggests a consensus-oriented effort to improve transparency and compliance.
The main points of contention identified in the bill itself concern the accuracy and completeness of the PLTIS and the annual revenue accounting process. The PLTWG raises concerns that state and county reporting is self-reported rather than independently audited, that some parcels are classified as ceded using a “more than 50 percent” rule of thumb, that submerged lands and parcels without tax map keys may be missing, and that federal lands and county revenue may not be fully captured. These issues matter because they could affect the calculation of OHA’s 20 percent share and the State’s compliance with its public trust obligations. The bill therefore reflects a policy dispute over data quality, methodology, and whether independent third-party review is needed to verify the State’s obligations to Native Hawaiians.