I’m honored to serve as your representative.
As we begin the new year, I am confident that we can achieve great things by working hand-in hand to move our community forward. While it is easy to become cynical about our society, I believe that change is possible when legislators use their power not to help themselves, but to uplift our most vulnerable neighbors.
I will never stop fighting to boost prosperity for working families, preserve our ʻāina for future generations, and provide a quality education for our keiki. I look forward to partnering with you during the 2025 legislative session. Below you will find my office's policy priorities for this year.
When we remain committed to the public good, we can build a better future for ourselves and our children. We just need the courage to keep marching forward, for the sake of the generations to come.
2025 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES
ELEVATING PUBLIC EDUCATION
1. REFINING STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE Equip students with essential skills for the future by embedding climate literacy, critical media analysis, and authentic, performance-based assessments into the educational framework.
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Media Literacy: Enhance students’ critical media analysis skills.
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Seal of Climate Literacy: Establish a program for certifying students’ understanding of climate science.
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Authentic Assessments: Replace standardized tests with authentic assessments.
2. INVESTING IN PUBLIC EDUCATION Prioritize funding and programs that strengthen civic understanding, ensuring students are well-prepared to participate in democracy and address pressing societal challenges.
Expand curricula and programs that teach students about civic responsibilities, critical thinking in governance, and engagement in public life.
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Civic Education: Expand support for curricula and programs that teach students about civic responsibilities, critical thinking in governance, and engagement in public life.
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Adequacy ConAm: Constitutional amendment ensuring adequate educational funding for our public schools.
PROMOTING ECONOMIC JUSTICE
1. WORKER PROTECTIONS Recent labor strikes by hotel workers and nurses highlighted critical worker concerns in key sectors. We need to strengthen workers’ rights by addressing income disparities and protecting workers during labor disputes.
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Unemployment Benefits: Allow striking workers to be eligible for unemployment benefits (Working Families Caucus).
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Hotel Service Disruptions: Establish protections for hotel service workers during strikes, require hotels to notify guests of significant service disruptions, and prohibit penalties for cancellations due to such disruptions (Working Families Caucus).
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Just Transition for Workers in Extractive Industries: Develop programs to support economic sustainability for workers transitioning from extractive industries (Working Families Caucus).
2. TAX FAIRNESS Advance a progressive tax structure that reduces burdens on working families while ensuring corporations and high-income earners pay their fair share.
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Taxation of REITs: Ensure Real Estate Investment Trusts and their stakeholders are fully subject to taxation, including capital gains, corporate income, and GET (Working Families Caucus).
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Estate Tax: Lower the exclusion amount to $1,000,000 and eliminate reciprocal exemptions.
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Income Tax with Rate Recapture: Implement a more progressive income tax structure (Working Families Caucus)
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Tax Haven Abuse: Require corporations to report foreign subsidiary income and apply state apportionment formulas.
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Corporate Income Tax: Increase corporate income tax and establish a single tax rate.
PROTECTING THE LAND
1. LAND AND POWER State government must help build diversified agriculture and a sustainable food system. We can create food sovereignty by reclaiming agricultural land, banning foreign ownership of agricultural land, limiting corporate ownership of agricultural land, and using taxation to check speculative practices involving agricultural land. And now is the moment to reassert Hawaiian control over lands previously leased to the U.S. military.
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Agricultural Lands:
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Ban Foreign Ownership: Prohibit foreign entities from owning, leasing, or controlling more than a specified number of acres of agricultural land. Require annual reporting by foreign entities.
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Block Corporate Ownership: Prohibit corporate ownership of agricultural lands.
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Land Gains Tax: Establish a conveyance tax surcharge on capital gains from agricultural land transfers.
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Landback – Restoration of crown lands currently under military lease, using trust structure similar to that used for Kaho’olawe.
2. REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES To build a robust and rationally designed food system in these islands, we need to promote sustainable farming, develop a more circular economy through stronger farm-to-state practices and strengthen resource conservation. Regenerative agricultural practices emphasize restoring the health of our soil, water, and ecosystems while increasing local food production.
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Right to Farm: Update the Right to Farm Act to support sustainable agricultural practices.
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Healthy Soils Practices: Establish a soil health program to maintain intact farmlands and forests while enhancing carbon sequestration.
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Agritourism Definition: Require counties to adopt ordinances for permitting agricultural tourism as secondary uses on working farms
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Farm to School: Decentralize the DOE School Food Authority and mandate local procurement of identified items.
3. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION To foster a thriving natural environment and strengthen Hawai‘i’s resilience, we must prioritize sustainable resource management, protect critical ecosystems, and integrate circular economic principles across sectors.
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Carbon Cashback: Implement a rebate program to return carbon tax revenues to residents, ensuring equitable financial redistribution while reducing emissions.
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Organic Waste Diversion: Direct counties to evaluate measures for diverting all organic waste by 2030.
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Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): Develop EPR programs for construction materials and food hubs.
SUPPORTING HUMAN AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS
1. “MISSING & MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN & GIRLS” REPORT FINDINGS Address systemic inequities in the treatment of Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and māhū communities by improving data collection, eliminating legal barriers to justice for survivors of sexual violence, and bolstering accountability in law enforcement.
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Data Disaggregation: Require improved collection and disaggregation of data for Native Hawaiian (NH), Pacific Islander (PI), and māhū communities to address gaps in police and state reporting on missing persons and suspicious deaths (Women’s Legislative Caucus).
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Statute of Limitations: Eliminate the statute of limitations for survivors of childhood sexual assault (Women’s Legislative Caucus)
Download a copy of our 2024 legislative proposals here: 2024 LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS
Download a copy of our 2023 legislative proposals here: 2023 LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS
Download a copy of our 2022 legislative proposals here: 2022 LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS.
Download a copy of our 2021 legislative proposals here: 2021 LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS.
Download a copy of our 2020 legislative proposals here: 2020 LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS.
Download a copy of our 2019 legislative proposals here: 2019 LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS.