This year all 76 seats in the Hawaii State Legislature are up for grabs because of redistricting.

We'll talk with candidates in the Republican primary for Senate District six covering parts of West and South Maui where there is no incumbent and the race.

On Oahu, two veteran lawmakers are facing off in the Democratic primary for House District 34 in Pearl City after their districts were merged.

Tonight's live broadcast and livestream of insights on PBS Hawaii start now.

Aloha and welcome to insights on PBS Hawaii.

I'm Olena Heu.

Now, Hawaii's primary election is Saturday, August 13.

And for those of you voting by mail, your ballot must be received by the 13th to be counted.

If you haven't put your ballot in the mail yet, you can drop it off at a ballot drop box.

In person voting centers are open through the 13th until 7pm.

For more information you can visit the website elections.hawaii.gov.

We start tonightʻs show with the Republican candidates for State Senate District Six which covers west and south Maui, including the towns of Makena, Kihei, Wailea, Lahaina and Waikapu.

There is no incumbent in this race and the candidates are looking to become first time state lawmakers.

Now later on in the show, we'll sit down with two veteran Hawaii lawmakers who are facing off because of redistricting.

They are running in the Democratic primary for State House District 34 which now covers Pearl City, Waiau, Waimalu, Pearl Highlands and Pacific Palisades.

We look forward to your participation in tonight's show.

You can email or call us with your questions.

We also encourage you to get involved with the conversation over on our Facebook page.

Now on to our guests.

Candidates for Senate District six.

Phillip Raya is a small business owner from Kahana Maui.

He graduated from Chaminade University and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

He's married with two children and is currently on the board of directors for the Kahana Ridge homeowners association.

Sheila Walker is a retired former business owner she's well known in the community for her anti-lockdown stance during the pandemic and led a recall effort against Mayor Victorino.

She has served on the Kihei Community Association, and the Lahaina town Action Committee.

Thank you for joining us tonight.

Now let's jump right in.

Now, Sheila, what would you say is the number one priority for you if elected?

Since I'm a Maui first candidate, I'm conservative, and I absolutely believe that we need a hospital on the west side.

So that's my number one priority.

West Side south side is the overpass underpass issue at our new high school.

So those our district has kind of split up between two towns.

So those are the two priorities that I'll jump right into and take some action on.

Because I'm all about the action, no more talk And Philip?

For me, it's all about the affordable housing crisis.

It affects so many of our community members, it starts with our Native Hawaiians.

It goes on into our first responders, our teachers, there are people here on Maui that are struggling, they can't live on this island, they can't afford to purchase a home anymore.

So for me, it's putting all the effort into finding people homes because they will be homeless if we don't do something soon.

What is the homeless situation look like in your district?

It depends on what level you're looking at.

There are people that are homeless on the streets, and there are people that are houseless that are looking for places to live.

They're living couch to couch and these are people that are gainfully employed in our community.

As a small business owner, I employ several people on both Kihei and the west side.

And finding a place to live is something that's really important.

And they're struggling.

Sheila, what are your thoughts about housing and homelessness?

Business owners are taking more responsibility themselves and actually going together and finding housing for their employees.

So that's one way they're solving their issue right away, which I would encourage more of that.

And the houseless issue is probably worse than the homeless issue.

So there are just are not enough houses and people are actually living out of rental units, the U haul rental units, so they have all their furniture, all their belongings inside of a rental unit and then they sleep in their car.

So that is an issue that we're trying to solve and create safe space perhaps for some of the people who are living out of their sleeping in their cars anyway and Living out of the rental units.

I was just on Maui last weekend and you know, it's a constant problem traffic.

What are some of the solutions that you propose?

The traffic because of the homeless people or the traffic just in general, just in general.

So traffic and proposing it ever was, was there a certain area where you thought traffic was heavy?

I think you know, obviously, the when you're leaving from call Louis and heading anywhere, it seems to be a major issue when you're trying to go south and you're trying to head west, and you could be stuck in it for an hour you can be stuck on all depends on accidents, I think that's probably the number one reason why traffic gets backed up the fires that happen and the accidents really clog up our roadways.

And since there's only one road into Lahaina, and basically one road into Kihei, I think that's probably the the easiest way to eliminate the key hate traffic is to continue the road up country from Laponia to Hailiimaile, there's a there's a road planned in that area that hasn't been taken any steps towards accomplishing for the past 15 years.

So the lanzmann charted out the plan is in place.

And so that's something that I also want to work on is continuing that of country road from lipoma, to highly mildly.

Any thoughts.

Well, with the emergence of tourism and how big it's become and how popular the islands are.

Our islands haven't grown enough to handle the amount of people coming.

So it takes a long time to get things done on our islands.

As we know, it's part of the culture here we move a little slower than the mainland.

But we've gotten to the place where we're sort of stuck.

And we need to act fast, and we need to get things done.

One of the problems with the road is it's one lane, it's one lane going one way and one lane going the opposite way.

How do we turn that into two lanes?

There's been talks of moving it inland more.

But these are massive projects.

And so there's a lot of things we need to do.

We could spend hours talking here about all these issues.

But it's one step at a time.

And it's one issue at a time.

Another issue, you know, related to tourism that you brought up is also the TSA line.

And you're talking about congestion when it comes to tourism, you know, what kind of solutions would you propose?

Well, what what what's troubling is on the way over here to the airport, we were talking to a woman who was working there in the restaurant, and she said I hear they want to put a cap on tourism.

The big question becomes, then how do we survive, for those of us that have businesses that do rely on tourism, it needs to be managed better.

And there might not be a cap in place, but it needs to be managed.

It's going to take a team, it's going to take a team, in our legislation with our governor to come together as a unit because no one person can solve this problem, we really need to unite.

And we need to get together and sit down and come up with the best plan from all these great minds.

Incumbent new commerce, we just need to get together.

And that's my biggest plan.

And Sheila, your thoughts about tourism.

And there are plenty of other communities in the United States and around the world that have a large number of visitors.

So there's no reason why we can't look at some of those communities and see how they handle it handle it well.

And I think part of it is the management think we're not managing our flow of visitors well enough.

And I don't really think it's about having less visitors or higher quality visitors.

It's managing what we have better.

And I think we can make it a smoother, smoother path for the for the airports and the roadways, if it was managed better.

And just want to encourage our viewers if you want to get involved in the conversation, you can call us with your questions.

You can also comment over on our Facebook page.

Now there's only one Republican in the state in the Senate over at the State Senate.

And what makes you think that you would actually be the second I think people are ready for a change.

The islands have been governed by the same party for way too long.

We need more checks and balances.

And it's not necessarily that we need more Republicans, we just need more conservative minded people to balance out some of the other opinions and some of the other lawmakers.

So I would propose that we need more checks and balances.

And since I'm Maui first Hawaii first, we need some people in there that are going to fight for the Maui first.

For me personally, it's about taking a strong leadership role and uniting people.

And I think it's when you have enough leadership qualities in yourself that you can influence people, it doesn't matter what party you're from, if you're speaking the right message, if you're about the people about the aina, and you care, everyone is going to be able to feel that it's going to take someone coming in there like myself, who has a lot of energy, a lot of passion for the people.

And it's going to take a lot of persuasion.

And you're not going to do it by butting heads, the establishment has been the same for decades.

So someone like me, who is representing the Republican Party, it's not about sharing my differences.

It's about coming together as a group, and sitting there as a committee like I do in my businesses, my businesses have people that wear masks and some that don't, my businesses have people that are Democrats, and some that are Republicans.

It's about unifying the group and when you unite anything is possible.

And that's what I provide?

Well, we're starting to get some questions from our viewers.

And one of them actually, is on this list of questions I have as well.

And it's something that we have dealt with for many years, how do you solve the axis deer problem.

So I believe that we need to have the facility to process the meat and use it for our not only our own consumption, but we could have, we could supply all the dogs with dog food on all the islands from our access deer.

So there's no reason why we can't have open hunting season on them, and round them up and use them as part of our, for our economy, because it would create food for for us and for the animals.

So we just need a processing plant.

What are your thoughts?

You know, in a, in a specific instance like this, because I'm about working as a committee and unifying with a group.

It's even going beyond legislators, it's about bringing in the experts.

It's about bringing in DLNR.

It's about bringing in the hunters.

It's about bringing in the community, having an open type forum, and actually creating what I call a political Renaissance.

It's not about groups, segregating themselves from other people and making all the decisions themselves.

It's about bringing in the experts together.

And sitting down, give yourself a one week or a 30 day period where you work together to come up with the best solution, especially for these problems that we've been dealing with for decades.

That's how I would deal with it.

have another question from a viewer Pat from Makena says, If elected, what are you going to do about our overcrowded boat harbors, we're getting squeezed out by commercial boats.

Sheila, you can go first.

Um, you know what I would like to look into that, because I didn't realize that was a problem on Maui.

So I guess that is an issue.

And so I, I'm, obviously I'm new.

I can learn policies, I can research things like that.

But what I can't learn is integrity and honesty.

So that's what I have to offer.

And I can do the research.

And I'll figure out a solution to that.

I think in a case like this, it's about transparency and checks and balances.

It's about taking inventory of all these boats.

What is their purpose?

What are they serving?

What's most important is serving our community and making it work and not having big commercial companies coming in.

And because they have the most money, they can go in and they can buy out all the slips.

It's about looking at who is serving us, and letting that be a priority first over big corporations.

And sometimes I think in these types of things with boats and charters and companies, the ones with the most money typically get what they want first, and we have to go in and take inventory of all these things.

It's going to take a lot of work.

So food security is a big issue not just for Maui, but also for the state we import 90% of that.

Molly has a great agricultural, you know, presence.

What do you suggest we do to help with food issues in terms of people going hungry and not being able to afford having a meal?

Well, I it's it's about it's about the process, and it's about this renaissance, I call it in government.

It's about, say someone like me gets elected in it's about then going through with the governor though with other legislators, regardless of their party, and really just coming together and making it happen, because there is a lot of political red tape, to just going out there and taking over this land and planting crops and providing us with all the food we need, the message has to be very compelling.

And I feel that this in our current state of affairs with politics, and what's been happening from the pandemic, that government is ready for it, and I believe just a few faces, new faces a little bit of a turnover, some people in there that are motivated, we could get this done.

Thank you, Sheila, what are your thoughts about food security, and to encourage the farmers and to support them actually, into cash crops that could easily sustain us, which would be the breadfruit.

And the sweet potatoes.

So those two alone we could live on forever?

So I would love to see the farmers be supported in in those two crop areas along with bamboo and hemp, because those two although they're not edible, they they could be a cash crop also and help diversify our economy.

You, Philip, how would you deal with another COVID?

Outbreak?

I think what we need to do is we need to look at what went wrong the first time, we have a lot of division, because of what happened with COVID.

We have people that believe you know, constitutionally, they weren't, they don't have to wear a mask.

They don't have to get a vaccine.

And that that's, that's a choice.

And people are allowed to make choices.

I think the first round people were fearful they were they didn't know how to handle it.

So we have to look at history and look at what it did it divided us.

What can we do better this time, we have better health and health care.

Now we have new technology.

And I think by having a Senate and a House that represents both sides, not just one party, we were going to be able to come up with a better solution for another pandemic.

But I don't believe that shutting us down completely.

And isolating us out and having people lose their jobs and their homes is the right answer.

There is a better way to do it.

And we can do that.

And Sheila, you've been outspoken about mask mandates.

And you know, what, what would you do if in a few months, there was another similar situation?

Absolutely.

I think it's important to have a disaster preparedness plan, which I think Maui is lacking.

So whether it's a pandemic or a tsunami, or hurricane season, I don't feel like we are prepared.

Our infrastructure isn't strong enough.

And our hospital wasn't even upgraded during this last pandemic with all the money that they received.

So there are no upgrades done.

So we're not even we didn't even learn anything or prepare more.

So that's an issue for all disaster preparedness.

We need to be ready and be prepared.

All right, we have another question from a viewer, Jeff from Maui.

He says what is your position on mandatory vaccines and boosters?

For me, I'm absolutely against the vaccines, absolutely against the mandatory anything.

I'm for body autonomy.

And I think people should have choice of whether or not they want to take any type of health supplement or vaccine or anything.

Hello.

I agree with Sheila on this.

We are a part of the United States because it's a free country.

And I believe people should be able to make their own choices based on the information that they have.

And I don't believe in mass control.

Do you believe in vaccines?

Well, there's the polio vaccine.

There is the measles and the mumps vaccine.

And those are vaccines because they prevent it from happening.

I know that a vaccine was administered to our community, some of us got it some of us didn't.

But people still get COVID from it.

And so we start getting into the area of what is a vaccine and what isn't a vaccine.

Sheila, I was instrumental in bringing Dr. Robert Malone to Maui he came twice as part of the global COVID summit.

And He's the inventor of the mRNA technology.

And even he says that the technology was not used the way he intended it to be used and therefore it's not effective.

So Um, I do not think that this is the COVID vaccine is actually a vaccine because of his, because of what he stands for.

All right, Philip many, many college graduates on Maui, and even you know, here on Oahu and across Nova either all leaving after they graduate, what are some of the things that you would propose to keep college graduates and students and even doctors in the islands?

Well, one of the reasons they decide to leave is because of the affordability.

Our average home price is well over a million dollars or meet medium home price.

So typically, someone is going to have to make 250 to $500,000 a year in order to buy a nice home.

How many of us can say that there are tons of jobs on the islands making that kind of money, especially on Maui, they're not available.

So they're leaving out of necessity, they want a better life, they want homes, they want to raise children, what we would have to do is we would have to create more affordable housing communities, as I said, as the number one issue that we're having, and so that way they can, because everyone would love to be in the beauty of these islands there that it's undeniable.

So we have to create those homes, and they have to match the incomes of those professions, whether you're a teacher, a fireman, a doctor, the home price has to match those incomes.

And until we do that, she loved leaving and cremate.

We could create tiny home communities to if we could create the permitting for tiny home communities, then we could have small, small towns and small homes.

And that might help.

But also the single wall construction is inexpensive, and that is not acceptable by permit in some areas.

So we could do a lot of things to kind of go back to simpler living style instead of having elaborate homes.

But that's a permitting issue.

So do you think those things would withstand a hurricane?

It will.

So hurricanes are coastal like on the coastline, they might not be up high.

So an Khula up higher?

Could be, we could do some communities like that.

So the single wall construction, I mean, we have them still here.

So they're everywhere.

I don't know if they have been here for 100 years, but they're probably just as sturdy as other construction.

You talked about health care and building a hospital, what other kinds of health care issues are pressing in your district, we definitely need more access to health care, because we only have one hospital on Maui.

So we need access on the west side.

Because it only takes a you know, an hour without care.

If you've had a heart attack, then you're dead.

So we can't get to the hospital in time for heart attacks and strokes on the west side.

So especially if there's traffic, too many people have lost their life because they don't have emergency care on the west side.

Are there enough ambulances as well?

You know, it is there there there isn't there isn't enough of anything on our island medically based.

I have a father that has terminal cancer.

And he can't really stay on Maui full time, even though our house is built for him.

Because he has to keep going back to San Diego where they have the proper care for him.

We don't have enough cancer, we don't have enough dialysis clinics as well.

I testified with a group of nurses in order to build another dialysis clinic and get that passed on Maui.

And you have some people that are in need and they're having to fly to other islands.

I have a dad that has to fly to the mainland.

So that says it right there.

I want to be close to my ohana and I can't because of the lack of medical care.

Some people say that there's a lot of corruption in government.

And there have been some issues with Maui senators as well and representatives.

What do you think about that and how do we change it?

One of my big issues that I'm fighting for, as a potential Senator, is term limits.

Governors have term limits, and state senators can be in there and House of Reps as long as they want.

It's an issue all the way at the Fed all the way up to the federal level.

If we were able to shorten those to two terms, it wouldn't be long enough for corruption to occur as greatly as it does because it it doesn't To allow special interest groups to, quote unquote, get their hooks into candidates in order to influence them to vote for certain things in a certain way.

So we need to shorten that down to two terms.

And it's going to solve a lot of problems.

And Sheila, you're absolutely agree on the term limits.

I agree with Phillip on that that term limits are necessary.

And also we need more elected officials, as opposed to appointed officials, because our state runs on mostly appointed officials, from our attorney general to our Secretary of State, to our school administrators, and to the almost every single department is appointed by one person, the governor, and those positions need to be up to the public to elect their officials.

All right, we have about a minute left.

Any last words?

For you?

I'm excited to be here.

Thank you so much, Elena.

This is a pleasure and Maui first conservative, common sense.

That's what I stand for.

I just like to say mahalo to the PBS station for having us here tonight.

And a big thank you to all of my supporters that are tuning in, and just grateful and blessed to be able to sit here today and represent our community.

All right, well, thank you so much.

And we would like to thank both of our guests, the Republican candidates for Senate District six, Sheila Walker, and Phillip Raya.

As we get ready for our next segment, please enjoy this HIKI NO story about David Malo de from the students at Lahainaluna High School over on Maui.

It really has been a long journey, because since inception in 1969, you know, we're looking at over 40 years of, of, of having a program run every year.

27:12 gave him all day, to me is a big way for the whole community to get together, especially Lahainaluna.

As alumni, they really like to come out and support the kids, especially those that were in Hawaii on a club when they were in high school.

So the day before we all get together and we help make the LAO we prep the food.

The process of it is taking the raw pork and rolling it in the collar leaves.

And then you roll them in the tea leaves.

And you wrap them in foil.

And then when we're all done, we make 800 Laos and after we're done that we take them all up to the EMU up towards the back of our school and we fire them.

So in preparation for the next day, the day of everybody wakes up really early and we all come to the school and help set everything up like the tables the stage.

Get any last minute things together like lace, or pick last minute flowers that we need.

And then we get to go home and take a shower because it's been hot all day.

When we come back, we get our stuff together in the dressing rooms and get ready and once we're all ready as a hello, we all walked down to the bottom of the school in the course room.

We all stand in a circle and get out like last minute jitters or any nervous butterflies and we say a prayer wishing us good luck.

My favorite part of the Memorial Day is the hula dancing because I love it so much.

It's probably the one thing that's worth all of the work is the dancing and the performing for everyone.

I'm getting to share all the stories with the community.

It's really just a venue in which the students can give mahalo back to the community to show them that.

They understand they wouldn't be here, you know without the help of our liner community.

I think that makes it exceptionally special.

This is Sophia Freddie from Lahainaluna High School for HIKI.

No.

Aloha and welcome back to insights on PBS Hawaii now due to redistricting to veteran's state legislators are facing off in the newly redrawn district 34 The district now includes Pearl City Pacific Palisades, why Mulu as well as manana and while we will visit with the two state representatives that find themselves running for reelection against their longtime colleague in the house.

Let's meet our guests.

Greg Takayama is a former news reporter with KHON TV and press secretary for the late US Senate Dan Inouye, he has been in the State House representing District 34 Pearl City, Pacific Palisades and Waimalu for the past 10 years, Roy Takumi has served in the State House of Representatives since 1992.

Currently, he represents District 35, Pearl City, Manana and Waipio.

Prior to public office, he worked as a teacher and served in the Hawaii Air National Guard.

Now let's start by taking a look at the district's here's a map showing district 34 and 35.

Before redistricting, Greg, you represented 34.

Roy, you represented 35.

Now here's a map showing the two districts after the maps were redrawn.

Greg, your district has not drastically changed, just enough to pit you against Roy, whom you have served with in the legislature for about 10 years.

So what are your thoughts about running against her colleague?

Well, you know, if you look at it, in terms of history, Roy and I have very similar backgrounds.

You know, we grew up in a working class neighborhoods, public schools.

Um, you know, we are you looking at our voting records, we're very much alike.

So there's not a lot that differentiates us.

But I do think that, you know, we have worked well together.

And so that makes the reapportionment race that pits us against each other a difficult one.

But nonetheless, that's the hand movement dealt.

And so, you know, I will leave it to the voters and proceed you to make that choice.

And Roy, what are your thoughts?

No, that's exactly my thoughts.

I think the district is it's a win win situation.

If Greg wins you, the district will be well, representative, I've managed to win.

You know, I'll try to do my best as well to represent the district.

So it's a it's a factor of reapportionment.

Basically, that's, you can, you can conjure up conspiracies as to why it happened.

But it did happen.

And we happen to be reapportioned together.

So we just run our campaigns, we receive it, and let the voters decide on Saturday, what makes you a better candidate?

She's, I don't see a better candidate per se.

I think of a candidate that has brings the experience that I've had in the legislature, but so does, Greg.

And so it's not a question of who is better.

We have different life experiences.

Although we both were born and raised in Hawaii, I lived abroad for six years.

So in Asia, mainly Japan.

I was a member of the way your National Guard, as you mentioned earlier, so I'm one of the few veterans that serving in the legislature.

So life experiences, there are some differences, obviously.

But when you look at our voting records, as Greg said, they're very similar in that regard.

And Greg, why should people vote for you, you know, when I was first elected 10 years ago, and all legislators make it a habit of visiting elementary schools and other public schools in their, in their area.

When I was first elected 10 years ago, fourth graders, I knew then, and saw every year since then, just this past few months ago, graduated from preceding High School.

And these are the same students and family members who have seen over the years, because this is the district that I've represented for the past 10 years.

And so if there is a bit of a difference between us, it's the fact that I've had the privilege of serving this district, most of it for the past 10 years and gotten to know the people and problems and concerns that our residents all have in that area.

You know, being in office for a good amount of time.

What are you most proud of in terms of your accomplishment or having any laws passed?

Well, you know, the first thing I did 10 years ago was become an active member of what is called a kupuna caucus, that's an organ, that's legislators and stakeholders in the senior senior community here in Hawaii, who have an active interest in legislative matters.

So I became co-chair of it for two reasons.

One is that our demographically we have a large number of seniors living in Pearl City, Aiea.

Secondly, you know, my, my dad passed away from dementia.

And although my brother was the primary caregiver, I saw how difficult it was for families who have loved ones suffering from dementia, Alzheimer's, that sort of thing.

So I made it a point of becoming active and sponsoring legislation that helps family caregivers.

Several years ago, one of the bills became law, and we became the first state in the nation to offer financial support to family caregivers to help ease the burden that All of these caregivers have.

And what about you in terms of what your proudest accomplishment would be in terms of lawmaking?

Yeah, I'd say the proudest accomplishment was, we passed out a bill called the reinventing Education Act, and basically changed the way schools are financed.

And this was done in 2004.

And I was the education chair at the time.

And so we changed the way schools are financed by using the weighted student formula.

In other words, kids, schools will get money based upon the type of kids that they have kids who don't know English kids who have special needs and so on.

It's a more logical way to fund our schools.

We're the first state in the country to adopt that.

Are other states have followed since then?

So I'm most proud about that.

Has there been anything that you propose that didn't get passed?

And you want to bring it up again?

Oh, comes?

Welcome to the legislature.

Yeah.

Well, you know, one of the big issues, I think, before us is, family leave, you know, we talked about helping family caregivers, if we were to adopt a family leave program, offering paid leave for those whose spouses or loved ones are our ILL, you know, that would go a long ways towards helping our families.

We're an aging society, our percentage of kupuna are growing faster than any other age group in Hawaii.

And so it'll be a growing problem.

And I think one of the solutions would be some form of family leave,that I hope we can see adopted in the next few years.

One of my passions has been universal preschool.

And so we've, we managed to establish the Executive Office of Early Learning that will oversee the growth of public preschools in our state.

So we still got a long ways to go, but we have the good beginnings of it.

And so I think, once we get universal preschool, that's the best investment we can make in our young children.

Let's switch gears a little bit and talk about COVID.

And the pandemic.

What do you think could have been improved in terms of government?

And what kind of changes would you propose?

Yeah, I think overall, this is mainly done by out of the governor's office, obviously, the legislature had only peripheral kind of involvement with the COVID policy.

But overall, our state did a good job, if you look at the statistics in terms of hospitalization, deaths and incidences of catching COVID.

So I don't know what fundamentally drastically would have changed with our approach.

I think the loosening of restrictions has been timely and done in a very deliberate way.

Yeah, I think Governor Ige, as Roy said, hasn't gotten enough credit for keeping us safe as a state having the lowest percentages of deaths and hospitalizations due to COVID.

But having said that, you know, I think there were missteps on the part of our Department of Labor, in terms of how we handled on an unemployment claims, I think they should have geared up our computer system much faster, geared up the number of people who are answering calls and concerns from those who are filing claims for unemployment.

And secondly, I think that it was a misstep for our top Department of Health officials to be actually taking different positions in the early months of the pandemic.

And I think it was wise for them to eventually be replaced.

The candidates prior to were both opposed to mandating vaccines and boosters.

What is your stance on that?

I, myself have been totally vaccinated and boosted.

I think the statistics I've shown facts have shown that they keep people out of serious illness, and they work and I support them not only for adults, but also for young children who statistics show that there are no villains out there.

The mandate is for those in sensitive public positions, such as law enforcement, health care, I agree that those people should be vaccinated.

Yeah, I don't know if it should be a universal mandate, but clearly, everybody should make up their own minds.

I for one, like Greg and vaccinated and boosted as well.

I did think it's a matter of public health, even when you enter school, kids have to be vaccinated against certain diseases, or else they cannot go to school.

I think it's a prudent public policy.

All right.

And we also accept viewer questions you can call in or you can comment on our on our Facebook page, and we've got one ready this is from Ed and pro city, he says you're both veteran lawmakers, what's your position on term limits?

Personally, I'm not in favor of term limits, I think.

We have term limits.

It's called elections.

In the State House of Representatives, for example, this year, it's estimated that there'll be between 12 and 15 new members, or 51 members in the House.

So if you calculate that as a matter of percentages, you're talking about a fourth of the body being new.

I think any institution, whether it's the House of Representatives, or company, or church, or a sports team, or whatever, organization, you might have replacing 1/4 of its membership every two years, that is sufficient change, in my opinion.

Some states have adopted term limits for their state legislators.

And I don't see a huge difference between those states and hours, that don't have term limits, I don't see a huge demand that for term limits.

I have faith in the voters, they, as Roy said, make the choice every election, and whether we're up for hiring every two years or four years.

In the case of Senate.

It's the voters who ultimately are the bosses.

And they have the same.

Alright, we have a question.

10 years ago, it used to be safe in Pearl City.

What are you going to do to make it safe again, Mildred, from Pearl City.

Interesting night.

You know, if you were to look at statistics, they show that Pearl City is among the safest districts in all of Hawaii.

But a lot of it, I think is due to local TV news.

The proliferation of closed circuit cameras, surveillance cameras, make it seem like crime is perfect, prevalent throughout the district, perhaps more so than they actually are.

I agree that in pro city, thefts of catalytic converters are a problem.

illegal fireworks are a problem.

There are quality of life issues that we're all concerned about.

In the case of catalytic converters.

Fortunately, we passed the law that I think will address the major problems.

But on the whole, I think that pro City is a fairly safe community.

It does worry me that our laws will soon change to allow for more guns to be carried by persons thanks to the US Supreme Court ruling that will allow concealed carry that does concern me.

Yeah, obviously, if you're a victim of crime, then crime is a big issue for you.

But I agree with Greg that, if you look at statistics, violent crime is actually not as prevalent as it once was.

Has it been eradicated?

Of course not.

But in terms of you becoming a potential victim, you have, you're more likely to become a victim of a traffic accident, actually, then you're a violent crime.

So should we have we have a police vacancy problem?

Obviously, that's a city issue that they have to wrestle with, because we're not recruiting as many police officers as we should.

So that's something I think we ought to take a hard look at as well.

And that is, if I'm sorry, if I could just add to what Roy said, you know, over the past two years, during the height of the pandemic, our crime figures really went down both violent crime and property crime.

People were at home, they weren't traveling, they were at work.

I mean, there were at home.

Burglaries naturally went down, thefts went down.

Now we're seeing a bump up now that people have going back to work that society is is returning to somewhat normal situations, and crime has come in certainly gone up a bit.

But that's not to say that crime is prevalent.

I think we're seeing a bump because of that.

Do you agree?

Yes.

How does rail impact your region?

Well, obviously real, there's going to be the result stage station right by Pearl Highlands.

And so it's, it's real, it's built already easy to train running on these trial runs.

You know, hopefully, it'll get running in my lifetime.

Okay, that was a joke.

That was it was being built, it was a big problem.

And as the real progress as is progressively to town, the problems and the challenges of building the real manifests itself along the route, but the porosity route is completed.

So I think the community is is waiting for the day that they can actually ride the train.

I think rail has the potential for really helping our community develop them.

Most people think of rail as a transportation vehicle, but but it also had the potential for dealing with much of our housing problems.

You know, in every one of the what was to be 21 stops, I guess now it's 19.

Stations, there's potential because most of the land around them is owned either by the city or state.

For us to build housing developments, they can be high density, housing developments that can serve a spectrum of needs from low income to market price housing.

And each of these stations will become a real focus of development, that has the potential to really do a great deal to address our housing needs.

45:42 It's called, of course, T.O.D., transit oriented development, anytime you build a train station, development occurs around that train station, with services and shopping and whatnot.

So you're just seeing the train stations at its infancy.

There's nothing around it right now.

But if you go to any major city that has a long standing rail system, you'll see what I mean.

Talking more about housing, you know, obviously, people are getting priced out of paradise, and the median cost of housing continues to rise.

What kind of solutions do you have?

Yeah, housing has always been a perennial problem in Hawaii, even when I was a kid.

You know, now it's really gotten out of control.

But I think part of the challenge we have is, you have to crack down on illegal Airbnb or illegal rentals that has taken rental inventory out of circulation, that's one way that you can improve, we have to increase the amount of money we put into the Rental Housing Trust Fund, because a lot of times people, they may be able to afford the mortgage, but they can't afford the down payment, they can't afford the down payment because they can't save enough money because they're renting and the rents too high.

So I think the the solution is to look at the problem for the rental side of the supply side.

Another thing I think we need to address is the high number of out of state investors that we see here in Hawaii.

And they're emptying up huge amounts of money to pay for places that could otherwise be owned by local residents.

And you have only to drive through Kakaako at say this time in the evening, and see how many lights are not on in those units to realize how many out of state owners there are who aren't making use of those units.

And it's frustrating for us as lawmakers to subsidize the infrastructure that made Kakaako possible.

And see so many of these units being owned by people who don't live in Hawaii.

And I'm not sure what the exact solution is.

There's discussion of maybe raising taxes on out of state property owners how you do that constitutionally is difficult.

But I think it is a problem that needs to be addressed.

Roy, your district might not be the most popular section for tourism.

But what are your thoughts in regards to tourism in Hawaii and how we're moving forward?

Yeah, we have way too many tourists.

You know, when Hawaii became a state, there were 250,000 tourists to Hawaii, before the pandemic 10 million.

And the projections in those days was well, we got 10,000,001 or 12,000,001.

At 14 million.

There's a carrying capacity to tourism obviously would have we found out I am in favor of reducing the number of tourists, but we go for the quality tourists.

So I think Lieutenant Governor green is proposing a tourist tax.

Again, I don't know if that's constitutional.

But an idea like that is worth exploring whether or not there should be a surcharge for anybody who comes in visits our islands.

Also, because of the illegal rentals and whatnot.

It attracted a lower spending tourist than what we should be attracting we should be attracting higher spending tourists.

And so the way you do that, is you get rid of these illegal rentals.

And if you can implement a surcharge, so it makes it a little more expensive for people to come.

Then you can attract 8 million tourists and still bring in the same amount of money that 10 million tourists brilliant.

You can look at Tahiti as an example Tahiti is really good for the high end tourists.

They get less than 300,000 tourists a year.

Now that's that's pretty low.

But clearly 10 million is too much for our current carrying capacity.

I agree that we need to look at the possible impact fee on visitors to Hawaii.

Other destinations have done it.

In other parts of the world.

Visitors want to visit a state park.

They apply for a fee.

They apply for a permit license maybe 50 at all.

Whereas a year entitles him to visit state parks, make use of our resources.

And that money can be used to upkeep our state parks or restrooms or facilities or beaches.

Again, that has to be dealt with constitutionally, I think there must be a way we can do it.

But I think that would ideally be that would go a long way towards taxing visitors and making them pay for part of the responsibility of up keeping the places that they frequent from our beaches, to our parks to our trails.

What do you think are some of the most pressing issues that you're facing in the district now?

Well, a couple months ago, in the middle of the legislative session, I did a survey of residents in the district and their top two issues by far were, of course, the Red Hill water contamination, and secondly, was public safety.

And I think they both spoke to them quality of life issues, as that earlier person asked about, there's an impression that crime is out of control when I don't think it's actually true.

But when people hear fireworks going off in middle of the night, people speeding down their residential area, being worried about catalytic converters being stolen, I think it's a matter of concern for all of us.

And that needs to be addressed.

But I think as far as Red Hills is concerned, I think it's in the hands of the US Navy.

And I think both the legislature and our congressional representatives have done a good job and holding their feet to the fire and making sure they do what they promised they would do.

Yeah, I did a community survey before the session started, are you guys doing the surveys, we basically I send out a newsletter to every registered household in the district.

And it has a survey in it, and then they return it, they mail it back, they mail it back, or they get an email.

Yeah, it's not scientific.

Yeah.

I was just curious.

Yeah, it's not a scientific survey.

But it because Bill, you know, mainly people who have concerns, send back a survey, they want their voice to be heard.

That's right.

People who are more or less satisfied with the way their life is going, they generally don't return back a survey, say everything's great, you know, keep up the good work kind of thing.

So in that survey, cost of living was number one.

But again, cost of living, takes many forms, right?

Can be housing, can be groceries, can be rent, can be many things, but just cost a little bit overall.

Second, interesting enough was fireworks.

And again, when they say All politics is local, I think there's a lot of truth to that, that in Provo city at all hours, all times of the year, fireworks will be going off, car alarms are going off, dogs start barking and all of that.

And it's a it's a vexing problem, to say the least.

But we've done some things the legislature will continue to do things that will try to minimize that issue, that you have to get the fireworks at its source, how it's being shipped in.

That's the only way you can really reduce number of illegal aerials that we have in our community.

It's crazy.

What would you say if someone says, you know, you guys are long term, veteran lawmakers time for some fresh blood?

Fresh?

Well, since we're both running, running, there's no fresh blood in this situation, I suppose.

But, you know, when you first run for office, I suppose it's easy to say we want new ideas and so on.

But when you get into the legislature, you find out there aren't that many new ideas that, you know, like Greg mentioned, a poor family leave family bills have been introduced for decades, paid sick leave bills, raising the minimum wage, you know, all these issues that we're faced with their bills in that get introduced to try to deal with them now getting the bill passed, trying to work in persuading colleagues, that this is a good idea to get it funded.

To me that's the art of politics.

And that you don't you don't get just by being in office for one or two years.

People always think of fresh blood as being the same as as young blood.

I always think that one of the things that our legislatures lacking are people who are experienced who have gone through life, who are maybe retired or on the edge of retirement, who have actually led lives in business or, you know, in other fields other than working in a government office.

I would like to see people who have that expertise, that life experience, bring that to the legislature and actually help us write laws that address issues that these people have dealt with them.

I think we're losing out on a lot of expertise among people who know what programs in government work, and more importantly, which government programs don't work.

I wish more of them would run for office.

Honest With just a few seconds left, what do you want to say to voters?

Well, you know, I am looking forward to the opportunity to help our young people, lead productive lives.

Give them the resources to become active citizens in Hawaii and more importantly, can afford to live in Hawaii.

I have a daughter who's living in Oregon.

I wish they'd live here.

All right.

Well, thank you, gentlemen, for joining us.

And Roy really quick.

Your last, my daughter moved to Las Vegas as well.

So I hear the concerns that people bought the cost of living and I think that's what the legislature is really focusing on.

Thank you.

All right, well, too bad you can't be the same person.

Mahalo for joining us tonight and we thank our guests candidates for House District 34 Representative Roy Takumi, and Representative Greg Takayama.

Now the primary election is Saturday, so make sure to vote or drop off your ballot before 7pm on August 13.

Next week, we will discuss the results of the primary election and preview the upcoming general election coming up in November.

Please join us then I'm Alana Hugh, for insights on PBS Hawaii.

Aloha and ahui hou.