{"id":95229,"date":"2025-12-24T22:05:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T22:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/95229\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T22:05:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T22:05:23","slug":"federal-judge-upholds-hawaiis-climate-change-tax-on-cruise-passengers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/95229\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal judge upholds Hawaii’s climate change tax on cruise passengers"},"content":{"rendered":"

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER<\/p>\n

HONOLULU (AP) \u2014 A federal judge\u2019s ruling clears the way for Hawaii to include cruise ship passengers in a new tourist tax<\/a> to help cope with climate change, a levy set to go into effect at the start of 2026.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Jill A. Otake on Tuesday denied a request seeking to stop officials from enforcing the new law on cruises.<\/p>\n

In the nation\u2019s first such levy to help cope with a warming planet<\/a>, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green signed legislation<\/a> in May that raises tax revenue to deal with eroding shorelines<\/a>, wildfires<\/a> and other climate problems. Officials estimate the tax will generate nearly $100 million annually.<\/p>\n

The levy increases rates on hotel room and vacation rental stays but also imposes a new 11% tax on the gross fares paid by a cruise ship\u2019s passengers, starting next year, prorated for the number of days the vessels are in Hawaii ports.<\/p>\n

Cruise Lines International Association challenged the tax<\/a> in a lawsuit, along with a Honolulu company that provides supplies and provisions to cruise ships and tour businesses out of Kauai and the Big Island that rely on cruise ship passengers. Among their arguments is that the new law violates the Constitution by taxing cruise ships for the privilege of entering Hawaii ports.<\/p>\n

Plaintiff lawyers also argued that the tax would hurt tourism by making cruises more expensive. The lawsuit notes the law authorizes counties to collect an additional 3% surcharge, bringing the total to 14% of prorated fares.<\/p>\n

\u201cCruise tourism generates nearly $1 billion in total economic impact for Hawai\u2018i and supports thousands of local jobs, and we remain focused on ensuring that success continues on a lawful, sustainable foundation,\u201d association spokesperson Jim McCarthy said in a statement.<\/p>\n

According to court records, plaintiffs will appeal. They asked the judge to grant an injunction pending an appeal and requested a ruling by Saturday afternoon given the law takes effect Jan. 1.<\/p>\n

Hawaii will continue to defend the law, which requires cruise operators to pay their share of transient accommodation tax to address climate change threats to the state, state Attorney General Anne Lopez said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The U.S. government intervened in the case, calling the tax a \u201cscheme to extort American citizens and businesses solely to benefit Hawaii\u201d in conflict with federal law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER HONOLULU (AP) \u2014 A federal judge\u2019s ruling clears the way for Hawaii to include…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[5885,50765,50766,1563,139,141,140],"class_list":{"0":"post-95229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-climate-change","9":"tag-climate-change-tax","10":"tag-cruise-tax","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-orlando","13":"tag-orlando-headlines","14":"tag-orlando-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}