State Sen. Gary Hooser, D-Kaua‘i-Ni‘ihau, has pledged that as co-chair of a special Senate initiative on affordable housing, his goal is to end the 2005 legislative session with “something meaningful” in terms of statewide affordable housing. State Sen. Ron Menor,
State Sen. Gary Hooser, D-Kaua‘i-Ni‘ihau, has pledged that as co-chair of a special Senate initiative on affordable housing, his goal is to end the 2005 legislative session with “something meaningful” in terms of statewide affordable housing.
State Sen. Ron Menor, a fellow Democrat from O‘ahu with relatives on Kaua‘i, is the other co-chair.
“Our goal is to have tangible results, and that means an increase in the availability of affordable housing in the near term,” Hooser said. “I’m very concerned. I want to play a leadership role in this issue.
“We have some ideas, and we have a lot of homework to do,” he said of roles including investigating the situation on a statewide basis and coming up with legislative proposals to battle the problem that is a statewide shortage of affordable housing. On Kaua‘i, that shortage has forced more than one family to relocate because they couldn’t find rental housing they could afford.
“Our goal is to do something meaningful in terms of affordable housing,” said Hooser, outlining also some other priorities while speaking of his committee assignments for the session of the state Legislature that begins next month.
In addition to keeping his seat on the all-important Senate money committee, Ways & Means, Hooser also remains vice chairman of the Education & Military Affairs Committee, and won a larger office and second committee vice chairmanship, Water, Land & Agriculture.
He continues serving as a member of the Energy, Environment & International Affairs and Human Services committees, and said he welcomes public input about legislative priorities, and scheduling of meetings with business and community groups in advance of the legislative session.
Those interested in setting up meetings with Hooser may call him toll-free at 274-3141, then ask the operator to connect to Hooser’s office, or e-mail him at senhooser@capitol.hawaii.gov.
“This is the time to do it, as early as possible,” Hooser said of setting up meetings with him in advance of the session’s start Wednesday, Jan. 19.
His staff will be growing as a result of his added responsibilities, he said.
Looking forward to a productive legislative year, Hooser said his priority items are many, and include continuing to work to get greater funding for public schools, with a hope to lower class sizes through grade five, and at a minimum through grade three. Now, class sizes are supposed to be a maximum of 20 students per teacher in grades kindergarten, first and second. The idea is to lower class sizes at least in third grade, and ideally third through fifth, he said.
Further, Hooser pledged to follow up on initiatives contained in the Reinventing Education Act for Hawai‘i’s Children (REACH), and getting more money appropriated and released for school repair and maintenance.
Big Island Sen. Russell Kokubun chairs the Water, Land & Agriculture Committee that Hooser co-chairs, and under which fall items related to state parks, said Hooser, pledging to work to get more funding for neglected state parks on Kaua‘i and across the state.
“And I can’t leave out transportation,” said Hooser, indicating that he and the other Kaua‘i legislators, state Reps. Mina Morita, D-North and East Kaua‘i; Bertha C. Kawakami, D-West Kaua‘i-Ni‘ihau; and Ezra Kanoho, D-East and South Kaua‘i, are scheduled to meet with state Department of Transportation Highways Division Engineer Steve Kyono “to see how we can move projects forward quickly, whether it’s Kaumuali‘i Highway (widening) or the (new and existing) Kapa‘a bypass road,” or dozens of smaller projects in between.
Hooser said he will continue to work to eliminate the general-excise tax on food and drugs for Hawai‘i residents, cautioning that if that happens some other form of revenue-generation will be needed to offset the loss of those tax revenues.
Finally, he said he is happy to have won re-election. The strenuous re-election process waged against former Mayor Maryanne Kusaka put Hooser behind in terms of working to address constituent concerns contained in a two-inch-thick binder in his Honolulu office, he said.
“I’m clearly very happy to be back serving the people of Kaua‘i.”
Paul C. Curtis, associate editor, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net.
