Question: The last serious hurricane to directly hit Hawaii was Iniki. What is the current balance in the hurricane fund?
Answer: For fiscal year 2023 the Hawai‘i Hurricane Relief Fund’s ending balance decreased to $169 million due to losses in market value of the investment portfolio, according to the state Department of Budget and Finance. A higher amount in reserves ($186.7 million) listed on the department’s website is out of date.
The HHRF was established by state law in 1993 to provide hurricane insurance when Hawaii’s private market was unreliable, but it ceased operations once the private market bounced back. After Hurricane Iniki struck in September 1992, devastating Kauai and damaging Oahu’s Waianae coast, some private insurers left the Hawaii market. By 1999 the HHRF provided hurricane coverage for about 155,000 policyholders statewide, but it “ceased operations in 2002 when private insurers returned fully to the market,” according to B&F’s website.
The HHRF’s operations had been funded “by policyholder premiums, assessments on licensed Hawaii property and casualty insurers, a special mortgage recording fee, and a surcharge on premiums on policies issued by licensed property and casualty insurers (as necessary),” the website says.
The fund’s reserves have been kept “to provide working capital if reactivation of operations becomes necessary. Reactivation may be needed if a major hurricane were to strike the Hawaiian Islands in the future, and private insurers, after settling claims for that event, were to leave the hurricane insurance market again,” the website says.
The Insurance Division of the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs says on its website that the HHRF stopped writing hurricane property insurance policies effective Dec. 1, 2000. It could restart if the fund’s board determined that private insurance is not reasonably available, it says.
A state law passed in 2002 requires that interest earned from the HHRF goes to the state’s general fund.
The law that created the hurricane fund (codified as Chapter 431P in the Hawaii Revised Statutes) says that if the HHRF is dissolved (as opposed to inactive), its “net monies” revert to the general fund. At least one bill was introduced this legislative session seeking to make that happen.
The HHRF was not established as a rainy day fund (the state has a separate emergency budget reserve for that), but has nonetheless been used as a “de facto budget reserve,” B&F says, noting that many millions of dollars were appropriated from the fund to bolster the state after the Great Recession. Most of the more than $100 million used from the fund during that period (2010-11) was later paid back from general excise taxes, B&F’s website says.
Q: When will the repaving ending Waimanalo?
A: The roadwork is nearly finished, but a single lane closure will continue through this spring, according to the state Department of ransportation, which posted the following update on its website Jan. 31:
The Hawaii DOT “has substantially completed paving work for the Kalaniana‘ole Highway Resurfacing Project, from Po‘alima Street to Makai Pier. Some paving work will need to be done near Po‘alima Street to address findings in the final inspection. Remaining work for the project includes the installation of guardrails by Makai Pier and Inoa‘ole Stream, installation of loop sensors near Waimanalo Elementary School, road striping, signage, delineators, and catch basin filters. A single lane closure will continue as noted on our website on Kalaniana‘ole Highway in one direction at a time, at locations between Po‘alima Street to Makai Pier, on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The estimated completion date for this project is in the Spring of 2024.”
The web page DOT mentioned lists weekly lane closures scheduled on Oahu. See it at 808ne.ws/roadwork.
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
