Kahi Pacarro
Office: House District 19
Party: Democrat
Living paycheck to paycheck is quite the personal experience. I've gotten pretty darn used to it and I'm getting tired of it. Things need to drastically change here in Hawai'i to make it more affordable. I'm willing to be that loud voice to make change happen.
My family of four with two of us parents working, regularly skip meals, rarely eat at restaurants, spend half of our paychecks on housing, and are unable to save any money.
Unless we elect leaders willing to make the necessary changes, there is nothing to be optimistic about! Once changes like elimination of GE Tax on essentials, rent freezes, vacant home taxes, much higher property tax breaks for owner occupants, Free PreK, luxury taxes, and more are implemented, then we can begin the optimism talks.
We can convince local working families by standing by our commitments to them and not provide lip service. We have to prove our efficacy and do it quickly. We are seeing it being done in New York, it can be done here.
The root cause of lagging opportunity and low wages is an unwillingness of our government to get creative. We should be investing into sectors that can increase opportunities and wages, I'll explain below. It is also due to companies thinking that it is ok to pay us in Sunshine (although I do love Sunshine Topping).
Let's start with the minimum wage. Even with it at $16 and headed up to $18, we all know that is not enough for even an individual to survive here in Hawaii unless you're working something like 80 hours a week. This needs to be higher and I would advocate for raising the minimum wage further.
But we also have to focus on lowering housing and providing more options for our community. An approach that includes both creating more housing while spurring more inventory by reducing the attractiveness of speculation can reduce costs by providing more supply.
With the modern workforce moving more mobile, it makes complete sense for our local companies to grow here versus moving to the continent. We need to nurture our existing entrepreneurial communities and bring those that moved away, back home to thrive. This can be done through tax benefits and subsidies to leap start this sector further.
Beyond just our local businesses, we should look for established sectors and budding ones to incentivize them to grow in Hawai'i. Budding sectors like Blue Economy that focuses on ocean tech. We are located in the perfect location for this industry!
We need to encourage the growth of locally created businesses or businesses created by locals on the continent to come back home and thrive. This can be done through tax incentives, grants, and subsidies. The up front investment will mean more of our keiki can remain home in Hawai'i.
We should secondarily look to encourage non-endemic companies to see the value in relocating here in Hawai'i as well. With the modern work situation being so fluid, it only makes sense to locate in Hawai'i. A happier workforce means a better product and better productivity.
The State should look at investing in programs that encourage these types of opportunities.
The state could enter collaborations with developers for housing developments on state land which could lock in pricing and expedite the permitting.
The regulatory red tape to build anything in Hawai'i makes it expensive. We need to simplify and expedite the permitting process without risking the safety of our community and environment.
And although we need more housing, we don't want to end up losing our neighborhood character. It would be ideal to allow for more multiplex style housing while requiring the character of the neighborhood being retained. This can be done without builing monster homes. I am not a fan of monster homes.
I have knocked on nearly 5,000 doors in the past six months and what I have seen is that MANY homes are empty. We need to get those rented our or sold. The state should encourage the Counties to increase homeowner exemptions on property taxes substantially while figuring out how to distinguish between rented homes and vacant homes. Then increase property taxes on both non owner occupant and vacant homes with vacant homes receiving the highest tax bracket. This will result in an increase of supply and reduce the cost of housing.
We can also look at reducing GE Tax on rental income to encourage more vacant homes to get rented.
We need to recognize that we want to avoid legal challenges that could be brought forth if we push the boundaries here, since Hawai'i is considered to be part of the USA. That being said, we can get creative and tax the vacant and non owner occupant housing like I mentioned above, we can force developers to sell larger amounts of a property to only to owner occupant owners, reintroduce the Kamaʻāina Homes Program (HB739), and support the state leasehold options such as the "ALOHA Homes".
I will work to reduce the regulatory red tape without sacrificing public safety or environmental safeguards.
I will support "ALOHA Homes" and similar projects.
I will push funding to improve infrastructure which makes it more attractive for developers to build homes by reducing their costs.
I would work to provide more opportunities for locals to purchase vs outsiders.
Eliminate the GE Tax on groceries and other items like femenine products and childcare items! Make up that cost by creating a luxury tax for specific luxury items. My wife and I skip meals often, partially due to cost. We live this reality.
Free Pre-K!!!!!!! Let me say it louder! FREE PRE-K!!!!!!! As a family that was able to access this for one of my children, it was a godsend. I've met multiple people in my district share that their kids had to move away once childcare costs were apparent. This alone could be the difference between a young family staying in Hawai'i or moving away.
State: Eliminate GE Tax on essentials and increase on luxury items and tourism.
Counties: Variable property taxes that drastically reduces owner occupancy taxes, increases for invesment properties, and drastically increases for vacant properties.
These basic ideas would reduce the cost of living for the vast majority of local families in Hawai'i and make the idea of home ownership more realistic.
Our government too often feels like a cesspool of corrupted politicians and greasy lobbyists. There are a few good politicians looking out for our state, but they're drowned out by the compromised. What we need and what we have the opportunity to build, is a new coalition of like-minded elected leaders willing to say no to corporate influence, so we can truly help the community, not just the businesses.
What am I doing about it? I'm running on a grassroots platform, taking zero corporate dollars.
What would I do once elected? Everything I just described. I wouldn't ignore local businesses, but I'd focus on our people first, and frame our work with businesses around how they can help our community, not how I can make them money so they'll cut me a check for my next campaign.
SB 2471 was a great step in the right direction but we need further safeguards to eliminate the undue influence that corporations have on our government. We need to reign in PACs and 501c4s, we need to strengthen publicly financed elections, we need to have opt-out voter registration, AND WE NEED TERM LIMITS!
Related Candidates
Mark Jun Hashem
House District 19,No Response Received
Democrat
