By Christine Donnelly 

Question: Earlier this year there was a push to make all Hawaii stores accept cash. Did that go anywhere?

Answer: The proposal was not approved. It was introduced in the state Legislature as Senate Bill 3255, which in its original form would have required all merchants to accept cash as a form of payment, except for online sales. However, the bill morphed into one authorizing cash transactions to be rounded up or down to the nearest five cents, since the U.S. Treasury has stopped minting pennies, without mandating that merchants accept cash. The amended bill, SB 3255 SD1 HD2 CD1, was approved by the Legislature and sent to the governor, who has until July 15 to sign it, veto it or let it become law without his signature.

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Leaders of the Retail Merchants of Hawaii, the Hawaii Food Industry Association and the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii testified that businesses have good reasons for going cashless, including to lower theft and robbery risks and potentially to reduce the cost of doing business, as cash- handling carries costs, such as for armored transport, various banking services and internal cash management. They said addressing the penny shortage was an urgent problem. A top consumer advocate testified that the bill’s imposition on “all merchants” seemed overly broad, applying to businesses that don’t have an employee on site to process cash transactions, such as at some parking lots.

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