Editor’s note: For Hawaii’s Nov. 5 General Election, Civil Beat asked candidates to answer some questions about where they stand on various issues and what their priorities will be if elected.

The following came from Andrew Takuya Garrett, Democratic candidate for State House District 22, which covers Manoa. His opponent is Republican Jeffrey Imamura.

Go to Civil Beat’s Election Guide for general information, and check out other candidates on the General Election Ballot.

1. What is the biggest issue facing your district, and what would you do about it? 

District 22 is not immune to the high cost of living and high inflation that can be felt in all four corners of the state. It’s no accident that the pace of outmigration has picked up over the last few years as families felt no choice but to relocate to lower-cost communities on the continent. It pains me to hear stories from my constituents about how they rarely get to see their children and grandchildren who have moved away.

While we’ll always have to deal with the “price of paradise” due to our geographic isolation, we must continue to support working families hold on to more of their paycheck. I was thrilled that we were able to pass historic tax cuts this past session that will do just that. Longer term, we must continue to support education at all levels and invest in workforce development programs to ensure that everyone has access to the schooling or training necessary to secure jobs that pay beyond a living wage. 

Lastly, if we are serious about stemming outmigration, we must accelerate the production of housing that is truly affordable for our residents to meet the goal of 50,000 units by 2030.

2. How do you feel about the massive income tax cut just approved by the Legislature and the governor? Do you have any concerns that it will force reductions in state services in the years to come?

I’m proud of the fact that the Legislature was able to deliver such a historic tax cut for working class families in the closing days of the 2024 session. Upon full implementation, it will result in several billion dollars in the pockets of Hawaii residents and will transition our state from being the second-highest taxed state to fourth-lowest for working families. 

Like any economy, we will face expansion and contraction in the years to come, especially since our location makes us particularly vulnerable to geopolitical events on the world stage. Such events that are out of our control (i.e. China attempting to take Taiwan by force) are more likely to require adjustments to services rather than this tax cut in and of itself. If necessary, the Legislature will work with the governor of that time to recalibrate our financial plan. 

3. Hawaii continues to struggle with pay-to-play politics and corruption in government. What meaningful reforms do you think would change state government for the better?

There have certainly been some high-profile cases of corruption in recent years, and we must never accept or condone such egregious behavior from our elected officials. Public service is a privilege, and we must hold our legislators to the highest ethical standards.

Although two former legislators were convicted and recently released from prison, I’m concerned that it may only be the tip of the iceberg. I hope the U.S. Department of Justice will accelerate their work. While I understand the need to protect the integrity of ongoing investigations, the public has a right to know who these individuals may be. 

Regarding reforms, I believe tangible steps have already been taken with the adoption of most of the Foley Commission’s recommendations, but I believe we should go a step further and impose term limits on legislators. Yes, there’s value in having elected officials with institutional knowledge, but capping the number of years a politician can serve would go a long way in restoring trust in government.

4. Candidates often say they will support reform proposals in the Legislature. And yet major reform proposals don’t pass. Will you back good-government proposals even if it means going against leadership? If you are an incumbent, can you point to an example of a reform that you supported?

As a freshman, I co-sponsored legislation (HB 967) to establish a public campaign financing program and voted in support on the floor of similar bills at each opportunity. Leadership has always been frank with the members of the majority to vote our conscience. Never was I pressured or coerced to vote a certain way on any bill. 

In 2023, I introduced a bill (HB 411) that would have proposed a constitutional amendment to authorize a “jungle primary” for our primary elections. Under this system, the two candidates who receive the highest number of votes in the primary would go on to the general election regardless of political party (much like nonpartisan races for Honolulu City Council seats). Although the bill was never scheduled for a hearing, I believe it would reinvigorate our elections by giving challengers a better chance to succeed against entrenched incumbents. It’s also likely to reduce the number of races where incumbents face no competition. 

In the same year, I also introduced a bill (HB 1137) that would have established a recall process when state legislators violate the public’s trust. As things currently stand, there is no mechanism for constituents to recall such a legislator; their only choice is to wait until the next election to potentially vote them out.

5. Do you support comprehensive public financing of elections for candidates who choose to participate? Why or why not?

As a matter of principle, yes, I support public financing of elections as evidenced by past votes I’ve taken. By far, fundraising is the part of the job I despise the most. I can’t help but feel guilty asking friends and family to support my candidacy when I know the money they generously contribute could go toward their kids’ college fund or a well-deserved family vacation. 

However, as we deliberated on SB 2381 last session (and SB 1543 the year before), it became clear that simply supporting something in concept is not enough. Legislating is tough; programs must be designed well, and ample thought must go into ensuring that there are no unintended consequences. At this point, there are still several outstanding details to work out before such a system is ready for primetime. Rough estimates are that such a system would cost over $30 million every two years; that’s money that could be spent elsewhere on a slew of worthy programs. 

6. Hawaii is the only Western state without a statewide citizens initiative process. Do you support such a process? Why or why not?

No, I don’t support such a process. There have been too many instances in other states where “citizens initiatives” were hijacked by deep-pocketed special interests to work around its legislative institutions.

Unfortunately, voter apathy remains high in our state, and it’s not realistic to expect a majority of voters to get educated about the issues that might be included in such a referendum. However, I do believe we are long overdue for a constitutional convention (the last one occurred in 1978, the year I was born) and would like to see one occur this decade.

7. Thanks to their campaign war chests and name familiarity, incumbents are almost always reelected in Hawaii legislative races. Should there be term limits for state legislators, as there are for the governor’s office and county councils? Why or why not?

Having defeated an incumbent in the Democratic primary in 2022, I’m living proof that it is possible for challengers to prevail despite the many advantages that come with incumbency. Even though I’m now an incumbent, I continue to support term limits for state legislators out of the simple belief that politics should be a calling, not a career. 

8. What will you do to ensure accountability at the Legislature? Do you support ideas such as requiring the Sunshine Law to apply to the Legislature or banning campaign contributions during session?

We’re all accountable to the voters of our respective districts, and ultimately, it’s up to them to determine if we deserve the privilege of serving on their behalf.  The legislative session is short enough as it is and applying the Sunshine Law (where agendas would be posted several days in advance) would bog down and frustrate the legislative process. However, if the Legislature were to move to a year-round calendar, I believe it’s worth exploring, as well as prohibiting outside employment. 

I’m not an attorney, but past courts have held that campaign contributions are a form of free speech. I’m not sure that banning campaign contributions from private citizens during session would pass constitutional muster.

9. How would you make the Legislature more transparent and accessible to the public? Opening conference committees to the public? Stricter disclosure requirements on lobbying and lobbyists? How could the Legislature change its own internal rules to be more open?

One of the silver linings of the pandemic is how the state Legislature was able to utilize virtual meetings to improve citizen engagement in the legislative process. It allowed concerned citizens to participate without having to be physically present at the Capitol, and the Legislature continues to do a great job of livestreaming and posting all hearings and floor sessions on its YouTube channel. Having run a few hearings as the vice chair of the House Labor and Government Operations committee, I know first-hand how easy it is for interested citizens to participate in our hearings from afar.   

Conference committees are already open to the public. To make the process more transparent, the House adopted a policy this past year that required the chair of each conference committee to verbally announce what was agreed to in the bill before a vote was taken. For some bills this only took a matter of seconds, but for a few fiscal bills I was assigned to, this took several minutes as we publicly announced the amount of a particular appropriation line by line.

10. Many people have talked about diversifying the local economy for many years now, and yet Hawaii is still heavily reliant on tourism. What, if anything, should be done differently about tourism and the economy?

We must accept that our islands have a carrying capacity, and we can’t continue the trend we were on pre-pandemic to break 10 million visitors a year. We saw the consequences of that over-reliance on tourism during our Covid-19 shutdowns throughout 2020 and 2021.   

Since then, there has been a switch to “destination management” from the entities in charge of marketing Hawaii. It’s important for us to seek visitors who appreciate what Hawaii has to offer and don’t view us as a playground where they can exploit our culture and resources without being cognizant of their stewardship responsibilities. Japanese tourists always understood this, but due to the weak yen, it’s highly unlikely they’ll return anytime soon. 

Tourism will always be a critical part of our economy, but we must plant the seeds now to develop additional knowledge-based sectors to thrive into the next century. This shift to an innovation-based economy must include careers in science, technology, energy and health care.

11. An estimated 60% of Hawaii residents are struggling to get by, a problem that reaches far beyond low-income and into the middle class, which is disappearing. What ideas do you have to help the middle class and working families who are finding it hard to continue to live here?

It’s tragic that the middle class is being hollowed out and that we’re becoming a community of haves and have-nots. The lack of truly affordable housing is the biggest challenge facing working class families in Hawaii. Historically, owning a home has been one of the best ways to ensure financial stability through the building of equity and to ensure a sense of belonging in the community. We can address this by increasing available inventory (especially on un- or under-utilized state lands and not focusing on adding density to areas without adequate infrastructure), supporting home ownership through first-time homebuyer tax credits and encouraging the counties to increase property taxes on out-of-state speculators.

Another policy we must implement is paid family leave so working-class families can take time off from work to care for elderly parents or to bond with their newborn. It is also important that paid sick leave become available to all employees. The pandemic highlighted this problem when employees who may have contracted Covid-19 showed up to work sick because they couldn’t afford to stay home. No one should ever have to make that choice.