2014
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
JOSEPH
M. SOUKI
SPEAKER
HOUSE
OF REPRESENTATIVES
STATE
OF HAWAII
»My fellow members and guests, aloha and welcome to the 2014 Regular
Session of the Hawaii State Legislature.
Thank you all for being here today.
The first thing I would like to do is thank all of
the House members for their efforts in the recently completed special
session. As we all know, it was one of
the most controversial and divisive sessions in recent memory. It was divisive, not only for us, but for our
entire community.
But no matter what your stand on the issue, I want
to thank you for your participation.
Because as we all know, in a democracy, the discussion and debates are
just as important—if not more so—than the resulting decision.
And so now it is time to put all of that behind us
and to move forward. More importantly, we
need to help our people heal in the spirit of aloha and ohana that has always
guided this community.
How do we do that?
To me, the best way is to lead by example—to come
together, as one House, to help our citizens provide a better life for
themselves and their children. That is
the way we’ve always done it. That’s the
aloha way.
Fortunately, we embark on this session in one of the
best fiscal positions in a long time.
With Hawaii's economy growing, construction stable, tourism strong and
unemployment down, there is every reason for hope and optimism. While the past few years have placed us in
survival mode, this year we have a real chance to create opportunities.
We have an opportunity to honor our kupuna and help
our families with their long-term care.
We have an opportunity to help the homeless and to
mend our social safety net that has been torn and tattered in recent years.
We have an opportunity to repair our schools and
help our teachers provide the best education for our keiki, from early learning
to higher education.
And speaking of education, we have an opportunity to
improve literacy in Hawaii by funding a statewide program to support the efforts
of the Governor’s Council for Literacy.
We have an opportunity to improve the infrastructure
that our businesses need to grow and prosper, thereby creating more jobs for
our people.
We have an opportunity to not only strengthen our
economy, but to do it in a way that protects our fragile environment, whether
it’s from damaging climate change or invasive species.
We don’t have to choose one over the other. A strong economy allows us to sustain both.
We need to not only spend wisely on social services,
but to prudently provide for our long-term financial obligations and to strengthen
our rainy day fund. But to do all that
we also need something that we haven’t talked a lot about recently—and that is
Vision, with a capital “V”.
As leaders, our job is to both create laws to take
care of today’s challenges and to anticipate long-term issues for
tomorrow. However, vision is not just a
“feel good” concept.
It is easy to talk about vision. It
is much harder to turn vision into reality.
It is easy to talk about health care reform, but
much harder to realize that goal when faced with the real life difficulties of
implementation and human failures. Just
as it was difficult to pass Hawaii’s Prepaid Health Care Act, back in 1974—a
law that has benefitted the majority of Hawaii’s working families since its
passage.
That measure was passed, primarily because of the
vision of its authors and because of their willingness to fight for that
vision.
Here today, I see many familiar faces, some with
whom I worked side by side in the 1978 state constitutional convention, a watershed
event that created among its many achievements the need for a balanced state
budget.
Because of the nature of what we were doing, vision
was not just an afterthought but a guiding principal of all that we thought
about and did.
I see many other familiar faces—dare I say, a bit
younger with whom I’ve worked to solve some of the most pressing issues facing
us today. In them, I see a new generation
of leaders, young, eager and full of energy.
To them, I want to issue this personal challenge not only for this
session but for their entire public service careers:
Be a visionary in a way that many of your predecessors here today were. Be careful and conservative when it comes to
the public’s welfare and finances. But
where your own careers are concerned, take a chance; take up the challenges,
facing you and all of us.
Be bold and look beyond your own wellbeing, and beyond today’s needs.
For example, contrary to what many believe, our tax
laws exist to make Hawaii a better place to live and work. We all have a vested interest in its upkeep
and wellbeing. We all have an obligation
to the whole. The distribution of that
obligation can be confusing even during the best of times. Long-term social trends constantly change the
landscape and we need to make frequent adjustments to our tax laws.
It’s not an easy task but a necessary one. It’s necessary if we want to be fair, and
it’s necessary if we want to keep Hawaii a place with aloha and a place we are
all proud to call home. In looking at
our budget, yes, be fiscally prudent.
But let’s also look at how we can do it better that makes more sense for
us today.
The Transient Accommodations Tax on tourism helps us
provide for the main driver of our economic engine. In this strong economy, should we not be
thinking about a greater partnership with our counties who provide much of the
services that directly support tourism?
They are the ones who maintain our roads and parks
and provide the law enforcement officers and first responders who serve our visitors
as well as our kamaina. Therefore, let’s
look at removing the cap on the counties’ share of the TAT.
It’s time.
I believe the gesture is not only long overdue, but
should be viewed as a better long-term investment in our counties and in our
number one industry.
And speaking of taxes, Hawaii’s personal income tax
is currently one of the highest in the nation.
The law that allowed that to happen was passed several years ago during
a severe budget shortfall, but will sunset in 2015. And it should be allowed to do so because
that’s good for Hawaii’s hard working families.
In both of these instances, the returns on ensuring
a more robust economy will be well worth the investment—a cost, however, that
is substantial for the State. So at the
same time, let’s look at a number of other sources of revenues that better
reflect the world and circumstances we live in today.
Let’s look at changes that would more sensibly
spread that burden among all who benefit from living and working in these
islands.
Let’s look at working with the state Attorney
General to better enforce existing tax requirements for those who do business—a
great deal of business—in the state.
I am referring to those who earn millions through
the Internet who are not located in Hawaii but profit from sales generated by
our people. Technology has
revolutionized the way companies do business throughout the world. And that’s amazing and wonderful.
But every day, they compete toe-to-toe with local
companies on a playing field that is clearly tilted in their favor. It’s time we level the playing field. We should also join other states who have
banded together to look at this issue, as well as consult with our congressional
delegation on actions being considered at the federal level.
Our tax laws also make allowances for seniors whose
incomes are usually fixed and very limited.
That is the right thing to do—for most of them.
But very wealthy seniors who draw over $100,000 in
pensions per person are also the beneficiaries of those tax
considerations. Let’s fix that anomaly
so that everyone pays their fair share no matter where their income comes from.
Recently, there has been much news about other
states legalizing the use of marijuana.
While I am not suggesting we go that route, Hawaii does permit the
limited cultivation and use of marijuana for medical purposes.
In spite of that, there are no dispensaries or
places where you can legally buy cannabis even with a prescription. I think we need to fix that gap in the law
before we talk about anything else.
In addition to the House-Senate majority’s package,
these are a few issues I hope you will discuss in this session. I look to all of you for much more and the
opportunity to create a new vision for Hawaii.
We have a lot of work before us.
To tackle it successfully, we will need to work together—to
hold to our beliefs but be willing to compromise when necessary for the greater
good.
We will need to bring our communities together and
engage and allow them to take ownership in the legislative process. Because that is the only way we will achieve
anything meaningful and lasting.
So let’s roll up our sleeves and get to it. I thank you for your commitment and look
forward to working with all of you.
Mahalo and aloha.
