Message from Director

Message from our Director

By: Jade Butay

Aloha HDOT ‘Ohana:

It has been approximately one year since Governor David Ige signed the First Emergency Proclamation relating to COVID-19. This has been a year of challenges for our family and friends impacted by the economic downturn.

Nevertheless, things are starting to look up; more vaccines are becoming available, the state Council on Revenues revised their projections and is now estimating the reduction in tax collection will be 2.5% instead of the 6.5% they were predicting in January, and the federal COVID-19 relief package passed. The passage of this relief package will allocate approximately $6.1 billion to the State and provides more flexibility in use of these funds than previous grants. Not to get stuck on the topic of money, but this relief package is huge for the Department. Airports Division will receive approximately $144 million. The State House Finance Committee, no longer facing the near insurmountable challenge of balancing a budget with a $1.4 billion shortfall, decided not to raid our special funds.

You’ve all shown what we can do with these special funds. On March 1, we held a very small, socially distanced dedication of Phase 1 of the Kapalama Container Terminal and broke ground on Phase 2. The Kapalama Container Terminal, when completed, will be hugely transformational for our hub and spoke harbors system. The combined land and water side improvements will add 40% to our shipping capacity and remove 50,000 truck trips from Nimitz Highway. I’m proud to note that Phase 1 finished on time and on budget!

On the topic of budget, the Council of Revenues has revised their forecast based on the trends in travel to Hawai’i. Right now, incoming volumes are stabilizing at 40-50% of pre pandemic rates and we do have Spring Break travel season coming. Safe Travels has allowed us to safely revitalize our economy and we’re looking forward to the future with possible vaccine passports.

These developments fill me with hope that we can soon return to a new normal, but please be aware that there is concern with variants such as the South African variant being detected in Hawai’i. I know that there are many more challenges ahead, but I wanted to acknowledge the ongoing sacrifice, hard work, and commitment from everyone at HDOT. It’s been amazing to witness what an important role the Department plays in improving the lives of so many in Hawaii -- and for that, I am most grateful.

Mahalo,

Jade Butay

Director