Financial Strain in Hawaiʻi : The SMS Update and Key Lessons for Local Businesses on Navigating Procurement Challenges

The key question emerging from the shutdown of SMS is whether Hawaiʻi’s government and private entities are helping or harming local firms through their procurement rules and procedures when hiring local firms for consulting and other work. Additionally, it raises the issue of whether the “buy local” philosophy is genuinely supported by these rules.

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Hirono’s 2024 commercial: featuring local roots and national advocacy

Senator Hirono, therefore, is providing a strategic reminder that fierce advocacy can attract resources back home, even if it clashes with the local preference for subtlety. Which, despite our wish that it was not, is a more effective way to get things done in Washington DC.

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DBEDT, HHFDC navigate a smooth transition following SMS collapse

The State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) and the Hawai‘i Housing Finance & Development Corporation (HHFDC) have recently confirmed that the state contracts previously held by SMS Research & Marketing Services, which recently shut down operations, have been transferred to other entities.

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SMS Vanishes: State Contracts in Limbo

So the question now becomes more focused as to the current situation at hand, that a company with a large value, and with their work with Maui and the Lahaina wildfire, high profile studies, that in the matter of a few days, the company has shuttered its doors?

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Insuring Hawai’i: The Green Fee’s (potential new) role

If the green fee is passed, it will fund a captive insurance program to mitigate rate increases due to natural disasters, providing better economic security for the people of Hawai‘i. The state could argue that the fee is necessary to preserve and protect its residents amidst a brain drain driven by cost of living increases.

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