The people of Hawaii have sent a clear message.
They want our elected leaders to take action on the biggest challenges we face — our shortage of affordable housing, the crisis of homelessness, and the high cost of living in our state.
Health care, education and environment — including climate change and Red Hill — also remain important issues to the people of Hawaii, and they want shared values like justice, equality, and diversity to be protected and advanced wherever possible.
In the six months since inauguration, we have taken action and already made important progress on each of these priorities.
Housing
Working closely with the state Legislature, we passed new measures to accelerate our response to Hawaii’s affordable housing shortage.
Over the next two years, the Rental Housing Revolving Fund will receive $280 million, the Hawaii Community Development Authority for housing development infrastructure improvements will receive $150 million, and $100 million will go to the Dwelling Unit Revolving Fund.
This year we will also begin to mobilize $600 million appropriated for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to build new housing for thousands of Native Hawaiian families.
These initiatives will start making an immediate difference to working people across our state who need affordable housing, and in the coming months we will continue to take action to speed this effort.
Homelessness
We are already making transformational progress in our fight against homelessness in Hawaii, securing more than $60 million for new kauhale villages and ohana zones.
Over the next eight months we’ll build multiple kauhale across the state to house the homeless, including the first neighbor island kauhale in Kealakehe on Hawaii island, and a medical respite kauhale across from the state Capitol in downtown Honolulu, which is set to open just days from now.
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We also designated more than $15 million for programs such as the state rent supplement, Housing First, our Rapid Re-Housing Program, and homeless outreach services.
Affordability
Many working families are struggling to afford to live in Hawaii, and we have launched the initial phase of a tax reform plan that will lower the cost of living in our state for nearly every resident for generations to come.
This session, the Legislature approved phase one of the Green Affordability Plan aimed at working families, which will double the earned income tax credit and food tax credit, and increase the existing child and dependent care tax credit.
This is already a victory for working people in our state, and we will continue to pursue further tax relief measures to lower the cost of living for families of all income levels.
Health care
Access to quality, affordable health care remains a top priority, and I’m proud to announce that Hawaii will be the first state in the nation to create a universal loan repayment program for medical professionals who commit to serving in our islands. We will invest $30 million over the next two years to fund this initiative, which will address our health care shortage and expand access to care by attracting and retaining doctors, nurses and social workers across our state.
We also will dedicate $73 million per year in state and federal funds to raise Medicaid rates, improving care for the 450,000 Hawaii residents currently on Medicaid.
Neighbor island hospitals on the Big Island, Maui and Kauai will receive $128 million for needed improvements.
Finally, we’ll invest more than $14 million for Hawaii’s nursing facilities and our Family Assessment Centers to expand health care access to the most vulnerable in our state.
Education
Hawaii suffers a chronic shortage of over 1,000 teachers every year, with many struggling to afford to live and work in our islands.
By successfully negotiating a new contract with the Hawaii State Teachers Association, we helped address this shortage by raising average salaries for our state’s 13,500 teachers, substantially increasing starting pay for new teachers to strengthen recruitment, and granting bonuses for experienced educators to improve teacher retention.
Environment
The people of Hawaii have made it clear that protecting our environment, taking action on climate change, and closing Red Hill for good are important priorities for our state.
We secured $100 million for the Hawaii Green Infrastructure Authority, which will lower the energy burden for more than 4,000 households in Hawaii.
On the Red Hill crisis, we delivered needed tax relief for those affected by the fuel spill, and formed the Governor’s Commission on Water Safety to ensure that Red Hill is safely drained and shut down for good and our water supply is protected.
Justice, equality and diversity
We have also taken action to strengthen and support Hawaii’s shared values of justice, equality and diversity.
We protected reproductive health care rights, expanded access to reproductive health care services, guaranteed that our state will never interfere with a pregnant person’s right to choose, and protected health care providers from criminal prosecution in other states when they provide reproductive health care services here.
We also took action to make our government more transparent and accountable by passing new laws to reform ethics, lobbying and campaign spending in our political system.
Finally, we appointed qualified women judges to the state bench, expanding diversity and bringing the number of sitting judges to 41 women and 40 men, making this the first time in Hawaii history there will be more female than male judges in our courts.
But work on the priorities the people of Hawaii have given us is not over — it has just begun.
As I said in my first address as governor to the Legislature, “we will continue to take bold action on providing affordable housing for working families, ending homelessness, protecting our environment, and doing everything in our power to make Hawaii more affordable for our people.”
During the first six months of our administration, we have kept this promise and begun to make the changes and progress that the people of Hawaii called for in November.
Josh Green is the governor of Hawaii.
