HONOLULU — After two years of COVID-induced budget cuts, the state Legislature took advantage of a rebounding economy and federal relief funding to enact an ambitious agenda.
“We’ve done over and above what we expected,” said state Rep. Dee Morikawa, Democratic majority floor leader. “Before the pandemic we were on line to address education, early learning, the ALICE families, housing. Now we can pick up where we left off and more.”
Legislators, who may have felt a little extra pressure to pass popular legislation since it is an election year, came out with a near $17 billion budget that restored many cuts from past sessions while funding $6 million in capital improvement projects, including $230 million in projects on Kaua‘i.
The session came to a close Thursday, and many bills that will impact Garden Island residents were sent to the governor’s desk for final approval or veto.
Taxes and income
The first impact that many will feel from the legislative session will come in the form of a $300 check.
Senate Bill 514 provides $300 checks for individuals earning less than $100,000 and couples earning less than $200,000, and $100 for individuals earning $100,000 or more and couples earning $200,000 or more.
Additionally, the Earned Income Tax Credit was made permanent and refundable, a move projected to boost the incomes of 5,452 Kaua‘i families by $420 on average next tax season.
“When they see their refund checks in the mail, when they see the EITC kick in,” said Morikawa, “it’s going to be tremendous.”
A measure to increase the state’s mandatory minimum wage, which died in the Legislature two years ago, was also revived this session in a House bill. The wage would increase incrementally until it reaches $18 an hour in 2028, making it the highest in the nation and matching Hawai‘i’s highest in the nation cost of living.
Housing
The Legislature allocated $300 million to the Rental Housing Revolving fund, used to help develop housing for low-income people, an increasingly important priority as rising rents leave more and more working people unable to afford a place to live.
“This helps meet the needs of our working families who leave Hawai‘i because they can’t even find rental housing,” said state Rep. Nadine Nakamura, who chairs the House Housing Committee.
The program was adjusted this year to target middle-income families as well as low-income people.
$150 million of the fund can be used for families making between 60% and 100% of the area median income, which for a family of four on Kaua‘i is between $61,150 and $93,400.
The Legislature also set aside $15 million for the ‘Ohana Zone homeless initiative, which counties can use to build new shelters, transitional housing and social services.
Hawaiian issues
It was a banner year for Native Hawaiian programs, which received over $1 billion in total funding, including $600 million to the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to pursue a multi-pronged approach to eliminating its lengthy waitlist for DHHL parcels.
“We usually give $25 or $35 million a year, so going from that to $600 million is a big deal, “ said Nakamura. “Not only for development of the lots, but it also can be used for mortgages and rent assistance.”
Some of this funding will find its way to a project in Hanapepe, which will offer 75 vacant lots to Native Hawaiians on the waitlist.
Additionally a class-action lawsuit was settled this session, providing $328 million to DHHL beneficiaries for damages related to the DHHL’s mismanaging of public lands.
Criminal justice reform
Prison reformers passed House Bill 1567, which would allow certain non-violent offenders to go free without bail, a move that could be a step towards reducing overcrowding in jails and prisons.
“If you get arrested and you have money you can post bail and get out,” said Nakamura. “It’s the people who cannot post bail who are filling up a lot of our jail space.”
Kaua‘i Community Correctional Center frequently was above capacity during the pandemic and, as of April 30, some 41% of the population were pretrial defendants who had not been convicted of a crime, according to criminal justice reform advocate Kat Brady of the Community Alliance on Prisons.
Another win for advocates like Brady was House Bill 2169, which will help ex-convicts secure an ID upon release, and House Bill 2309, which would provide funding for re-entry assistance programs.
Brady credited community-based organization with securing the reforms.
“Some of the greatest advances in civil rights have happened from the bottom up, not from the top down,” said Brady. “Some of the greatest innovations come from people within the community.”
Work to be done: Campaign finance reform
Midway through the session, the Legislature was hit with a shocking bribery scandal in which two former lawmakers were indicted for accepting bribes from wastewater executive Milton Choy in exchange for shaping legislation.
Choy also spread legal donations throughout the state legislature — including to most of the Kaua‘i delegation — leading many to call for fundamental changes to the campaign financing system and nearly all the Kaua‘i candidates to return the Choy donations.
The Legislature responded to the scandal by enacting a Senate Bill 555, which would ban elected officials from conducting fundraisers during legislative sessions. Lawmakers will still be allowed to accept contributions, however, leaving many of the issues surrounding campaign financing unresolved.
Campaign finance reform will be top of mind for Nakamura if she is re-elected. She has voiced interest in publicly funded elections as a means of addressing the problem. Under this system, candidates would be granted access to public funds for adhering to a limit on contributions.
“If you really want to take away the potential influence of people contributing to campaigns, that’s the way to do it,” she said.
Morikawa also cited ethics changes as a priority issue for her if she is re-elected later this year.
Legislators still await the results of the Commission to Improve Standards of Conduct established in the wake of the bribery scandal. A final report from the committee is due Dec. 1 2023.
