On the heels of figures that show a staggering 82 percent of food establishments inspected on O’ahu last fiscal year had major violations, lawmakers are looking to beef up the state’s restaurant inspections system.

A bill moving through the Legislature would allow the Health Department to use the fees it gets from restaurants to hire more inspectors and put food violation records online.

The legislation would also open the door to raising fees for restaurants in a bid to subsidize an inspection system — now paid for by taxpayers — that has weathered spending cuts for the last 20 years and has seen its cadre of state food safety inspectors on O’ahu shrink from 23 in 1988 to just nine today.

“The horror story is major violations are so commonplace,” said Peter Oshiro, supervisor of the Department of Health’s Sanitation Branch, which oversees food establishment inspections. “It’s shocking. It’s endangering the public. With more frequent inspections, you can bring that number down.”

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