High prices on virtually everything in our islands stretch our household budgets and make doing business hard. Even small increases in the price of essential items or the cost of shipping make a huge difference for our small- business community and Hawaii residents.

As our economy continues to recover from the pandemic, we look to our state lawmakers to support our working families and avoid adding unnecessary costs to doing business in Hawaii. Unfortunately, House Bill 714, relating to mooring lines, would add new, duplicative labor requirements to ships bringing goods into Hawaii ports.

Hawaii’s shipping companies have labor agreements in place with workers at our ports. The bill seeks to mandate that stevedore workers be used to secure vessels to docks, regardless of whether there are labor agreements already in place.

We understand the intent of the bill is to create jobs by replacing those who are already hard at work and doing those jobs safely. However, we must also consider that international supply shortages, record-high increases in shipping costs around the world, and employer mandates have already made doing business harder than ever, and this bill ultimately affects working families.

Unfortunately, our business community and residents would suffer unintended consequences if this bill is passed. The impact of additional labor requirements would increase Hawaii’s already high cost of goods and services for consumers and will likely cause supply disruptions for businesses and residents on the neighbor islands. Given the historically high inflation rates already impacting our community over the last couple of years, this is just a bad time to enact legislation that would increase prices for businesses and consumers.

We don’t need to look far to see Hawaii’s business landscape is changing. We are seeing the closure of iconic, anchor tenants in shopping centers on all islands. Clearly, many stores are continuing to struggle to keep their doors open and their employees employed.

The upward trend in online purchases in our islands grew exponentially during the pandemic and the prolonged lockdowns exacerbated our situation. Bills such as HB714 are counterproductive and will only set businesses further back at a time when we all need to work together to lift up everyone in the community, and not increase prices of goods to make Hawaii an even more expensive place to live.

The University of Hawaii Research Organization noted in its 2023 first quarter report that the state’s population began to decrease prior to the pandemic and that COVID-19 accelerated the decline. Since the fourth quarter of 2019, Hawaii has seen a loss of more than 14,000 residents. Families are hurting and seeking refuge in other states.

Our request is reasonable. A group of businesses, the Hawaii Cost of Living Coalition, has brought our concerns about rising costs that will result from this proposed measure to our legislators. The state Attorney General’s Office, Hawaii Department of Transportation and Public Utilities Commission have also shared their comments or objections in public testimonies.

The bill will now be subject to final decision-making by the lawmakers assigned in conference committee. Our neighbor island communities will likely face the biggest impacts if this bill becomes law. We ask these committee members to look after the best interests of Hawaii’s businesses and kamaaina who are struggling in this uncertain economy.

Sherry Menor-McNamara is president/CEO of the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii; Tina Yamaki is the president of the Retail Merchants of Hawaii.