State Legislature returns with ambitious agenda

LIHU‘E — The state Legislature convened Wednesday, with leaders from the House and Senate presenting a bold vision for the upcoming session.

Legislative leaders announced plans to raise the minimum wage to $18 an hour, invest $600 million in the Hawaiian Homelands trust, improve mental-health resources and address the statewide teacher shortage.

For the House, this session provides the chance to continue work for economic justice that was put on hold during the pandemic.

“This is where we were going before the pandemic,” said state Rep. Dee Morikawa, who represents west and south Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau and is majority floor leader. “With the economy improving the way it has we can begin to pick it up again.”

House Speaker Scott Saiki said that he intends to advance legislation to increase the hourly minimum wage from $10.10 to $18, increase the food-tax credit, and make the Earned Income Tax Credit refundable and permanent.

“It’s going to be a huge impact for working people,” Morikawa said of the potential minimum-wage increase. “We have to increase wages in order to afford the cost of living.”

According to Saiki, the entire package would give a family an additional $33,600 in income. The bill, still being drafted, will be introduced in the house Monday, Saiki reported.

State Rep. James Tokioka, who represents Lihu‘e, portions of Wailua and the South Shore, was more cautious about a minimum-wage increase, because of the effect it would have on small businesses.

“If you raise the minimum wage and you don’t increase the tip credit, then (restaurants) are going to be hurting,” Tokioka said in a recent interview. “(They’re) already hurting with the restrictions from COVID, and now you’re going to do this?”

The tip credit allows employers to pay tipped employees less than minimum wage. The current maximum tip credit is $0.75 per hour, meaning that under the current law employers must pay tipped employees at least $9.35 per hour.

In the Senate, a bill put forward by 21 senators, including Senate President Ron Kouchi, a Lihu‘e resident who represents Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau, lays out the specifics of a staggered minimum-wage increase. Under this bill, the minimum wage would increase to $12 per hour beginning Oct. 1, 2022, $15 in 2024, and $18 in 2026. This bill would make the Hawaiian minimum wage the highest in the nation — in line with the state’s highest-in-the-nation cost of living.

“The average cost of a home is $1 million now,” Kouchi said. “We need to make sure our residents have homes they can afford.”

In the House, Saiki announced that he intends to advance a bill calling for a significant housing investment to assist Native Hawaiians, with an appropriation of $600 million to enable beneficiaries of the Hawaiian Homelands trust to acquire their own homes.

The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920 allows people with at least 50% Hawaiian blood to apply for 99-year homestead leases costing $1 a year. But there are more than 20,000 people on the waiting list for such leases.

“It is time to give the Department of Hawaiian Homelands the resources it needs to fulfill its fiduciary duty,” Saiki said.

Kouchi also stressed the importance of mental-health improvements, citing a high per-capita suicide rate on Kaua’i.

Between 2017 and 2019, Kaua‘i saw 22 suicide deaths per 100,000 residents, higher than Hawai‘i’s 14.8 rate and the nation’s 13.9. In a one-week period in 2020, there were four suicides on the island.

“In the pandemic, being cooped up, being locked down, not having social interaction, the inability to pay bills and support our families has only added more stress,” Kouchi said. “We need to support mental-health services.”

Kouchi and the Senate also announced plans to address the statewide teacher shortage, with Kouchi backing the creation of affordable housing for teachers. His wife Joy Kouchi is a retired teacher.