My personal experience with the high cost of living in Hawaii is experienced at almost every level, from food to utilities, to home maintenance, to property taxes and home insurance. To car repairs and maintenance, stagnant wages and an unregulated private sector construction industry has created a race to the bottom. Where it seems the harder you work does not equal economic security.
In order to restore optimism and create a viable economic future for the people of Hawai’i we need to create a sustainable agriculture sector, increase unionization of all industries to insure healthcare, vacation time, and retirements. We need to look into Medicare for all, social housing, rent control and roll back property taxes and regressive taxation that continues to shift the burden of government onto the Working Class and Indigenous populations.
To address the root causes of lagging opportunity and low wages at the legislative level we need to increase minimum wages, expand medical coverage, state money to invest in a sustainable agriculture sector to create self sufficiency. Along with a Green New Deal we would create thousands of union jobs in the renewable energy sector and bring in hundreds of millions in revenue, taxes and savings for the Working Class.
In order for the State to improve workforce development and ensure living wage jobs to keep our youth in Hawaii and provide them with economic opportunity we need to create trade, agriculture and craft schools. Along with a state supported revitalization of an agricultural industry and green energy development we can further realize a Hawaii that provides good paying jobs for our youth and beyond.
In order to lower housing costed we need to tax vacation homes, second, luxury homes at higher rates. We should eliminate property taxes on family homes, older residents and multi-generational homes. We also need to eliminate the military from impacting our housing prices by banning them from living online communities and paying higher rents with their COLA that artificially drive up home values and rents that are unsustainable for local people.
Out of state and real estate investment must be curtailed, they need to be taxed at higher rates to diminish their ability to profit in this market and drive up housing costs that only benefit them and wealthy landowners and developers.
I would support all legislation and seek to introduce a social housing system and ways to keep local families in their homes through low to no interest loans for home improvements and home construction in family lands.
Through the Green New Deal we would dramatically reduce energy costs, and a revitalization of agriculture, to grow our own food and achieve food independence from the mainland.
We should provide childcare free of charge and low cost education for our youth like they do in other developed countries.
We need to decrease the tax burdens of the Working Class. A progressive tax structure that shifts the burdens of society from those with less to those with more and corporations. We should eliminate property taxes for low income and local families, car registration, and GE taxes for food, fuel and other necessary goods to increase their affordability.
Many small businesses must pay exorbitant rents and utilities, the burden of providing healthcare in largely unregulated private sector causes many to compete in a way that decreases their viability. Healthcare for all, cheaper utilities, public transportation and a more regulated private sector construction industry would insure fairness for those trying to do things the right way. Right now we have a black market labor industry that only supports the Real estate market and private developers in keeping wages low and further shifts the burden to the State in unrealized employment taxes and employee benefits that must be paid for by the State.
Government accountability must be of the highest priority, we need to have anti corruption laws that would hold officials accountable to the public and punish those that would commit fraud and other crimes and strip away benefits and levy fines against those that do. Government officials must be willing to hold themselves to the highest standards for the public good, corruption must be rooted out with a special task force to investigate all claims of impropriety.
Related Candidates
Mike Lee
House District 50,No Response Received
Democrat
