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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.

The bill allows rounding for cash payments as follows:

>> When the total transaction amount ends with one cent, two cents, six cents, or seven cents as the final digit, “the amount of cents in the sum shall be rounded down to the nearest amount divisible by five.” So $1.02 would round down to $1, and $1.27 would round down to $1.25, for example. The exception is when the entire transaction totals one cent or two cents, in which case the total shall be rounded up to five cents.

>> When the total transaction amount ends with three cents, four cents, eight cents, or nine cents as the final digit, “the amount of cents in the sum shall be rounded up to the nearest amount divisible by five.” So $1.03 would round up to $1.05 and $1.99 would round up to $2.

Rounding would apply only to cash transactions, not to payments “made by any demand or negotiable instrument, electronic fund transfer, check, gift card, money order, credit card, or other like instrument or method,” the bill said.

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