Definitely. Too much time is spent in cars and on the roads rather than at home and with families, affecting people's quality of life. I support mass transit because I believe that we need to have a method of moving volumes of people in alternative means rather than our already overcrowded freeways and roads. With thousands and thousands of new homes being built in central Oahu (10,000+ in Ewa plains/Kapolei; 8,000+ in Mililani) that equates to over 20,000 more cars that could be on our already clogged freeways, that are already at maximum capacity (daily travel capacity for H-1 corridor is only approx. 200,000 cars).

In addition, we need to continue efforts to move more services and business to the "second" city of Kapolei. The new Judiciary juvenile and family court will help as will UH West-Oahu. Thus, these efforts must continue to be supported. By moving/creating more governmental services there, and building more infrastructure, businesses will eventually follow.

The Legislature already appropriate over $50 million of it surplus last session to help address the homeless problem. But just spending money and building homes is not enough. That will help the "working" homeless, and I support more efforts to increase public housing and housing assistance/subsidy programs.

However, there is a large majority of homeless that are not part of that "working" group. Many suffer from psychological conditions and are in need of health care support to give them the proper treatment that they may need to get themselves out of their situation. Therefore, we need to continue to reduce our uninsured population and continue to fund Medicaid where the federal government has cut or refused to do so.

Finally, we also need effective vocational rehabilitation for those that want to work but are unable to. Having visited homeless shelters, I was surprised to learn that many there have a desire to work, but need to develop the proper skills, diligence and commitment to take on full-time work. With Hawaii having the lowest unemployment rate in the entire nation (approximately 3%), there are opportunities out there, but these individuals have to be properly trained in order to help them help themselves.

Many of these individuals could be the results of the federal government's welfare reform. For the first five years, the shift from welfare to work went largely as hoped, with employment rates for single mothers rising and child poverty rates falling, helping to reduce the number of welfare cases. But since 2000, employment rates for single mothers have fallen and child poverty has increased. Caseloads have continued to fall, indicating that welfare is reaching fewer children at a time of rising need.

While we do need more housing infrastructure, that is merely one part of the larger picture for we need to push for approaches that eliminate the pervasive effects of poverty, which can include homelessness. This can be done by providing people with a living wage (and why Hawaii should always have a minimum wage higher than the federal level) and training to become employed.

The state needs to encourage more affordable development of housing through incentives and looking at whether there are ways to diminish the duplicity and prolonged dual permitting process on the state and county level. However, while duplication and redundancy are things that can be removed, the overall goals of the Land Use Commission, and ensuring proper land use planning still remains a distinct function that can not and should not be relegated completely to the counties.

While government can do its part by creating more public housing, I generally do not support rent control over private housing. This has been shown to only create "slum" areas where poverty and crime proliferate as landlords refuse to invest into maintenance and improvements since their profit margin is hampered.

The Hawaii State Constitution grants "all functions, powers and duties relating to the taxation of real property" to the counties. HI ST. CONST. Art. VIII ¤ 3. The power to set exemptions from real property tax is into a matter of statewide concern reserved to the legislature. State of Haw. v. City and County of Honolulu, 99 Haw. 508 (2002). Therefore, while I support providing additional or expanded exemptions for long-time homeowners (non-speculators) and the elderly or those on fixed incomes, unfortunately, there is not much that the legislature can do to address this issue.

The Child Support Enforcement Agency (CSEA). It is inexcusable that one of the most vulnerable and neediest, and arguably, one of the most important constituencies of our society, the children, are sometimes denied or have to await receipt of adjudicated and owed monies to them. CSEA has a history of poor response and jeopardy of losing federal funding due to their failure to meet basic standards. It has improved, but is still in need of an overhaul.

One of the ideal balances that we already enacted, but need to continue to reevaluate is the transient accommodations tax (TAT). Already, a dedicated portion goes to the Dept. of Land and Natural Resources for fixing our state parks. With more tourists than ever coming, whether an increase is warranted, and/or more funding from the TAT fund should be expended for tourism's use of these parks and beaches is an idea we should continue to look at. I also think we should look at cruise industry and the extent to which they should pay their fair share of the TAT.

The Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism released a study in December 2002 entitled "Planning for Sustainable Tourism in Hawaii" that looked the different geographical areas of the state's infrastructure and environmental impacts by tourism when compared with existing residential uses. Information like this is critical for it demonstrates where we need to prioritize the proper funding from the TAT for tourism-related usage and where we should be using general funds for residentially-used areas.

Based on census data from 1990 to 2005, Hawaii's population has consistently increased each year by approximately 1%. While this may not seem like a large amount, add to this the record-tourism numbers of 7 million visitors each year, and eventually, we will reach a point where capacity on these islands, especially with our limited resources of water and land, will become maxed out.

The Legislature has created, and I fully support, the Sustainability Task Force that was created to look at how the State General Plan should be amended to ensure that we balance the needs for economy and housing against our limited land base and natural resources being an island state. However, a plan, without buy-in, awareness and especially, some "teeth" is just a piece of paper. I propose requiring legislation that limits any developments and efforts which run counter to, or are inconsistent with the updated plan.

More resources need to go into our State's enforcement of marine-life protection measures already on the books. We have too few Division of Conservation and Resource Enforcement (DoCARE) officers. Violators continue to violate because their likelihood of getting caught is miniscule.

We also need to continue to look at more marine life conservation districts and authorize the communities themselves, to decide, designate and regulate the fishing in their own "back yards."

This practice should be stopped. We spend approximately $50 million to ship prisoners out of state, which may be a cost effective approach, given the ability of other states to house our prisoners for less money. However, this separation undermines any ability of these prisoners, upon release, to be able to have maintained the necessary familial contacts necessary for hopeful reintegration. Instead, we should build a new detention center, similar to the federal detention center by the airport. Being vertical (highrise-like) rather and spread-out over a large footprint, security is much better, requiring only 30% of the staffing, compared to Oahu Community Correction Center (OCCC). We can then look into using the land from OCCC for other more effective and efficient purposes such as a long-term prison, or instead, my support would be more for a drug-treatment/rehabilitation secure facility since a large portion of our prison population is for drug-related crimes.

This is primarily a county issue, but I do support ongoing effort to look at new technologies that can help to alleviate the landfill burden. Japan has developed some innovative solutions that we should look into. I also support building more H-Power facilities so that the trash that is collected is reduced in volume and turned into energy.

As an environmental attorney, and prior Oahu Group Chair of the Sierra Club, I was a named Plaintiff (before getting into the Legislature) in the Sierra Club's lawsuit against the Hawaii Tourism Authority to require it to do an infrastructure and sustainability study, which while it did not legally prevail, I do believe was the impetus for the DBEDT report referenced in response no. 6.

As to what that state can do, see my responses to nos. 6 & 7.

The Legislature already passed and needs to continue to support the designation of important agricultural lands so that those lands that are prime and ideal for agricultural development (based on soil, water availability, proximity to markets) are preserved and not used for urban or industrial development. We should also continue to invest in agricultural research and development, but with a focus on marketing Hawaii's climate as ideally situated for year-around growth. We have the ability to continually grow crops that other places cannot and we should use that attribute to our advantage.

As to property tax breaks, see my response to no. 4. The state cannot do much.

I have consistently supported efforts for our solar energy tax credit, renewable energy portfolio standards and net metering. However, we need to invest more resources towards developing renewable energy technologies such as hydrogen and fuel cells that can store energy. One of the primary functions of utility companies is being able to provide a consistent, reliable and ongoing source of energy - and therein lies the problem with intermittent wind and solar sources. Hydrogen and fuel cells, while cost-prohibitive at this time, with more research and development and innovative technological advances, can become more cost-effective and increase storage capacity. Once we have the ability to store renewable energy, we can then more effectively utilize and harness the other forms of renewable energy, such as wind and solar.

We need to provide more funding for: (1) better school facilities; (2) proper and updated teaching tools (textbooks and computers) and (3) teachers' salaries to treat them as true professionals and attract and retain the best of them. Being a public school graduate myself, I was fortunate to have some of the best and most inspirational teachers. More of these kinds of teachers need to be put into the system. When I graduated from high school, too many of my friends, while interested in teaching, decided on other fields based almost solely upon the money.

An admirable, but ultimately altruistic goal (i.e. 100% of all students meeting standards) that is fatally flawed by: (1) the federal government's failure to adequately fund the mandates; (2) sole emphasis on standardized tests to the exclusion of individualized learning methods and creative teaching; and (3) failure to recognize that some students, despite the best and most committed and hard-working educational system, have social, economic, parental, and/or psychological/physiological barriers that preclude their achievement, especially of standardized tests. If the federal government is going to keep the mandates, it needs to provide the proper funding.

Unfortunately, the logical result of NCLB will be either: (1) the federal government amending down the standards (since they don't have the resources, especially now funding the war and ongoing tax cuts, to fund states); and/or (2) states, as we've already seen, will start downgrading their own standards simply to make sure they "meet" are more subjective standard.

I supported and still support the Act 221 tax credit now that it has been clarified to curb abuses and last session advocated for the formation of an Innovation Fund which would have dedicated a portion of our general fund collections as a source of support for high tech industries as they moved beyond formation and reliance upon venture capitalists. Unfortunately, this proposal did not obtain final approval, but I still believe that if we are going to put our "money where our mouth is" we need to make sure there is a resource for companies the continue to build their enterprises.

Yes, see response to Question #1. Based on what I've seen thus far, I prefer an elevated fixed rail on a separate track from existing roadways.

Yes. The State of Hawaii has long recognized a guardian-ward relationship with the Native Hawaiians analogous to the relationship between the United States and the Indian tribes. Designation under this legislation will allow the categorization of Native Hawaiians as a "political" class rather than a "racial" class. Morton v. Mancari, 417 U.S. 535 (1974). It is the only means by which we can ensure that the rights of Native Hawaiians and their entitlements are not subject to further equal protection attacks.

Yes. Same as above.

Protecting individual constitutional and civil rights against "watering-down" and/or invasion.

The Daily Show and Colbert Report on Comedy Central (can't watch one without the other).

The Middle Son, by Deborah Iida. A fictional novel set in Maui about a son who transitions from the generation of sugar plantations, but providing a great historical context on where we came from and the labor/union movement.

Going to the gym, running, boxing and hiking, spending time with my friends, family and dogs, karaoke, and cooking and having a few drinks with good friends.

My family. My grandparents worked as laborers in the sugarcane fields to make a better life for their families. My uncles, as the eldest children, similarly worked to send the younger siblings like my mom to college. She studied hard, shortening her college schooling to become a teacher so that she could raise our family. My father, an orphan, worked to put himself through school and became an electrician, not for personal interest, but to ensure he could provide for his family.

Several years ago, I came to the realization that my several and incredible opportunities - a private university education, my law school degree, my choice of environmental law practice - were specifically due to and was built upon the sacrifices of those before me.

Being so fortunate, I feel that it is my responsibility to pay some of it back and ensure that those that follow will be afforded those same opportunities.