Mayor La Costa 2026
Experienced, steady, community-driven leadership for Maui County.
About P. Denise
P. Denise La Costa (Mayor La Costa 2026) wants to keep the islands we love from falling further into decay. That’s why she’s running for Maui County Mayor. She has watched too many families leave in tears. Robbed of opportunities, satisfying jobs and hope, local families are leaving the island for places that can give them what they can no longer find at home.
P. Denise La Costa is a longtime Maui resident, community leader, and small-business owner with more than three decades of experience in land use, housing, and public service. She has lived on Maui since January 1, 1990, and has spent much of that time working directly on the issues that shape neighborhoods, families, and the future of the island.
P. Denise currently serves as President of the West Maui Community Task Force, where she continues a years-long commitment to grassroots problem-solving and community advocacy. Previously, she served as Vice President of the Task Force from 2019 to 2023, helping guide West Maui through periods of growth, challenge, and transition.
From 2018 to 2023, Denise served on the Maui County Planning Commission, including roles as both Chair and Commissioner. In that capacity, she worked on some of the county’s most consequential land-use and housing decisions—balancing growth, infrastructure, environmental stewardship, and community needs. Her service reflected a practical, community-centered approach grounded in experience rather than ideology.
P. Denise is also a founding member of the West Maui Domestic Violence Task Force, where she volunteered from 2004 to 2019, helping bring attention, coordination, and resources to one of the most critical—and often overlooked—public safety and public health issues facing families.
Her public service extends statewide. Denise has served as a Commissioner on the Hawaiʻi Real Estate Commission and held multiple leadership roles with the Real Estate Association of Maui, including service from 2013 through 2016. Professionally, she is the Principal Broker and Owner of La Costa Realty Hawaiʻi, a role she has held since 2014, with earlier leadership from 2004 to 2011. Her 33 years in real estate give her deep, practical insight into housing supply, affordability, zoning, and regulatory impacts.
P. Denise holds an Associate Degree in Business from Tacoma Community College and a Bachelor of Science in Business from Central Washington University. Her leadership has been recognized with multiple honors, including Maui County Woman of Excellence – Mana Wahine (2022), RPAC Hall of Fame (2023), and Dame of Honor of the Orthodox Order of St. John Hospitallers (2018).
P. Denise La Costa is running for Mayor to bring experienced, steady, and community-driven leadership to Maui County—leadership rooted in service, accountability, and a deep understanding of the people and places that make Maui home.
VISION
W.H.E.N.
Quality housing shortages. Problems with water. A restrictive economy. A government that is broken. For years, Maui residents have wanted to know when their mayor would come up with a plan. A plan for their success. A real plan. P. Denise says Water, Housing, Economy, New Procedures – “WHEN” is now.
Mayor La Costa 2026
A Maui working families can afford to call home.
P. Denise La Costa is running on a simple promise: cut the costs squeezing local families, build the homes Maui actually needs, and run a county government that’s honest about what it does with your money. Here’s where she stands.
Affordability
Maui is the most expensive place to live in Hawai‘i — and county government keeps making it worse. La Costa the Cost Cutter will roll the costs back.
The County budget grew 46% in three years. It’s holding $174 million in carryover savings. And in that same window it added a new GET surcharge on your groceries and gas, raised sewer fees 9%, and raised water rates up to 25% — while families fell further behind.
The Cost Cutter Plan uses money the County is already collecting — no new taxes — to deliver real relief: a county fuel tax holiday, an independent forensic audit, and a return of excess revenue to the residents who paid it. For a homeowner family of four, that’s about $1,200 a year back in the household budget.
Homes Together
Maui doesn’t have enough homes, and Bill 9 made the housing crisis worse without a plan to replace what it takes away. La Costa has that plan.
On Day One, La Costa will transmit a repeal of Bill 9 to the Council — packaged together with Homes Together, an affordability program that protects local families instead of leaving them caught between displacement and a broken market. A mayor can’t rewrite Council law alone, so she’ll lead the repeal honestly: introduce it, build the votes, and direct the Planning Department to ease enforcement on owner-occupied and transitional cases while the Council acts.
Homes Together also means fixing the real bottleneck — a slow, unpredictable permitting process — and working aggressively with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to move families who have waited far too long onto their land. Not storage units dressed up as “tiny homes.” Real, dignified housing.
Transparent, Honest Government
Residents deserve to know what their government does with their money — and to trust the answer.
Through the most fiscally consequential years in modern Maui history — a budget up 46%, $174 million in reserve, fee increase after fee increase — the County Auditor delivered just one substantive operational audit. That’s not oversight. That’s a blind spot.
La Costa will commission an independent forensic audit by an outside firm with no ties to the County, make every county-controlled rate and its history public in a plain-language dashboard, and hold department heads to real standards. When government collects more than it needs, it returns the excess — and it shows its work.
Where She Stands
Water, housing, the economy, and a county government that works — the issues facing every part of the island.
From Upcountry water shortages to West Maui recovery, from a struggling small-business economy to permitting systems that don’t work, Maui’s challenges are connected — and they demand leadership that treats them as one plan, not a list of crises to react to.
La Costa’s approach is grounded in practical results, cultural respect, and public accountability: a resilient multi-source water system, honest housing policy, a forward-looking economy, and core county services that run clearly and consistently.
Help Make Maui Affordable Again
Join the campaign to cut costs, build homes, and bring honesty back to county government.
DonatePaid for by Mayor La Costa 2026 Committee • PO Box 12424, Lahaina HI 96761
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