The chronically underfunded state agency in charge of providing qualified Native Hawaiians with homestead lots wants to tap tourist tax dollars to fund some of its projects.

The state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands plans to ask lawmakers to approve a 1% increase to the Transient Accommodations Tax, which could generate more than $100 million in annual revenue for the department to pursue development and assist its beneficiaries with home loans — a key sticking point for many who have languished for decades on a waiting list for housing lots.

The department also plans to ask lawmakers next year to fund climate mitigation and environmental stewardship projects that align with the state’s new green fee law, which levies an additional 0.75% tax on daily room rates to fund such projects.

Those measures – the additional tourist tax in particular – are among a handful of proposals to deliver more funding to a state agency that has struggled to fulfill a law established by Congress in 1921 to provide homesteads to those with at least 50% Hawaiian blood. The department has struggled with a lack of funds over the years as a waitlist of applicants for homestead lots has grown to nearly 30,000 individuals.

Gov. Josh Green is considering inclusion of the measures in his package of bills to lawmakers in January, although individual lawmakers could also take up the matter themselves. Green was in Japan this week, and his office said that it hasn’t reviewed all of the department’s proposals yet.

“However, Governor Green has shown consistent support for DHHL and Native Hawaiian needs and communities around the state,” his office said in a statement.

Raising the TAT could be a hard sell in the Legislature this year, said Rep. Dan Holt, who leads the House Native Hawaiian Affairs Caucus. Holt and other lawmakers introduced a measure earlier this year that mirrors the department’s proposal, but it died in the first half of the session.

Instead, lawmakers raised the tourist tax by 0.75% to fund environmental projects. The new green fee is expected to generate $100 million annually.

“Taking on an additional tax now would be kind of hard for the industry to bear in such a short period of time,” Holt said.

He said that lawmakers are looking for alternative proposals for permanent funding for the department, but that it’s “too early to say” what those are.

“We are exploring other things,” Holt said.

Raising the tourist tax again would also likely face opposition from the tourism industry and hoteliers, who have said that it’s not always possible to determine where exactly the tourism dollars are going after they are deposited into the general fund — a $9.5 billion pot of money that funds state government.

“There’s not a clear nexus,” said Stephanie Donoho, administrative director for the Kohala Coast Resort Association. “We’ve watched again and again and again and again those funds get swept and go somewhere else.”

The resort association has opposed tax increases, including proposals from DHHL, over studies that have indicated that short-term vacation rentals may not be paying all that they owe in taxes. For hotel managers, it’s become an equity issue, Donoho said.

But she added that allocating a percentage of the current TAT specifically to housing projects may be more palatable to hotel operators. Directing funds to specific projects, like housing development, could give the public a clearer picture of how tourist tax dollars are being used.

“We absolutely need more housing,” she said.

Lawmakers allocated $600 million to DHHL three years ago to spur development and alleviate the waitlist. But the department’s current financial models indicate it would need billions of dollars to develop enough lots for everyone on the waitlist.

The 1% increase on tourist taxes would go to the Hawaiian Home General Loan Fund which can be used for developing land, repairing home lots and providing farm loans, and it allows the department to leverage the loan fund to access matching contributions toward projects from the state or federal government.

Another proposal seeks an unspecified amount of funding for 51 infrastructure projects across the homestead lands that would meet the requirements of the green fee law.

That law, passed last year, sets up an advisory council to consider climate mitigation and environmental stewardship projects for funding using revenues from the additional 0.75% tourist tax that will begin in January. Project criteria include how close to being ready a project is, community support for a project, the capacity for a department to complete the project, and the benefit to the state, green fee advisory council member Keoni Kuoha said during the group’s inaugural meeting in September.

The council evaluates projects and develops a list of recommendations for funding. From its list, the governor chooses projects to include in a supplemental budget request to lawmakers. DHHL’s bill asks the Legislature for additional funding on top of that request.

The projects in the DHHL bill include funding to convert the hundreds of homestead lots still on cesspools to other systems for wastewater treatment to comply with a state law that phases out cesspools by 2050.

The bill also calls for funding for water system improvements in homestead areas across the state, wildfire mitigation and emergency evacuation routes.

Other bills recommended by the Hawaiian Homes Commission would lower the cost of DHHL projects by exempting them from the state general excise tax and would allow the department to terminate leases due to criminal activity.