Hope seems to be building for the state after the Hawaii Council on Revenue made its latest forecast; the council is looking at a possible 5% growth in revenue.
The estimate is a promising half-billion-dollar increase in the state budget surplus.
“What that basically means is it’s an additional $500 million in revenues that we did not plan for, and that opens up different kinds of possibilities,” state House Budget Committee Chair Rep. Sylvia Luke (D-Honolulu) told Hawaii News Now.
North American tourists have come back faster than expected, which contributed to the revenue growth, according to the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization.
The Council, which is attached to the Department of Taxation, previously projected that there would be a 2.5% drop in tax revenue. Currently, several agencies had a decline in their budget, including the Hawaii Tourism Authority, which had a 25% reduction, and the University of Hawaii, which lost $80 million.
While the numbers would bring good news if achieved, such as possibly paying back loans by the Department of Labor, which borrowed $700 million to cover unemployment checks as the pandemic heightened, Luke reminded everyone that these are only estimates and they won't know until tax revenues come in at the end of the month, Hawaii News Now reported.