 This is So Tech Hawaii, the Trinity Matters here. I'm Marcia Joyner, and we are navigating the journey. Navigating the journey is dedicated to exploring options and choices in life. Today, we will journey down many different paths. Our guest, Hawaii State Senator Willis Barrow, has championed more paths than I can count. However, today we will begin with the completion of the state legislature special session. With September 15 deadline to submit the financial plan to the federal government, lawmakers were really busy scurrying around to get that done. So I'm going to ask the senator, what does that mean to us? What is the impact on the neighbor islands? And will we complete this thing or not? Okay, Senator Esparro is a dear friend. He's been in the legislature what, 19, 20 years? 18. 18. Senator Esparro was, he worked for the city and county. He worked, he was a representative and a senator. And now he's going to run off and give up his seat to run for lieutenant governor. Is that correct? That is correct, Marcia. Let's go back. Okay, let's go back. Now, first, let's complete the special session. What happened? Well, as you mentioned, we did have a September 15 deadline from the federal government and that if we didn't have a financial plan in place, that they would begin the process of possibly terminating our 1.3 or 4 billion dollar deal where we have already received $800 million from the federal government and we're hoping to get an additional 600 million plus. So at the end of this session in 2017, there was a stalemate. The Senate wanted to extend the general excise tax and the House had come up with a plan for the TAT and the general excise tax. The TAT is? The TAT being the hotel tax, the transient accommodations tax. And because that was offered at the very, very last minute, we really didn't have time to get it and discuss it. So the rail bill essentially died. Many people thought that it would pass but it died. That's the issue of the special session. And the mayor advocating and lobbying saying we need a financial plan that we could provide to the federal government. What was on the table, what was agreed upon was there was a compromise bill. We will extend the general excise tax an additional three years to right now, it's 2027, it'll be to 2030. The general excise tax is only for Oahu? Oahu, correct. And this is what we're paying now and frankly most people don't even know that they're paying this half percent. The new twist is the transient accommodation tax and that will be increased to 1% for 13 years also to 2030. But that transient accommodation tax and that's statewide, which means it includes the neighbor islands. That we will be able to get more money up front. So almost like a mortgage you have more money up front, you put more money down and then you have less interest over the long run. And we're supposed to, with this plan, save hundreds of millions of dollars in interest. The opposition to this came from the hotel industry, of course, and the neighbor island. But we need to make it clear, it's the neighbor island visitor. So it's possible that local people will get taxed if they stay in these units, especially the high price ones. But I don't know how many of our local residents are going to be staying in $400, $500 rooms. Yeah, it's only for the visitor, it's not for the local people. Well, no, it's on the neighbor island. It's for whoever stays on the neighbor island hotels. And if a local person does, then they have to pay it. How much is that one percent? We're talking like for an additional, for a room for two, maybe an additional $2 a room. And if there's two people in it or three people in it, then per person it even goes down. The majority of the people that will be paying this will be visitors. And it's not as if we're taxing income tax or corporate tax. And the hotel industry, you know, they're concerned that it will impact the tourism industry. But from what we've been able to see over the years in the past that, you know, with the tax increases, people want to come to Hawaii because this is a paradise, right? For many of them, it's a once in a lifetime. And you save for those once in a lifetime type of vacations. And for many who come and continue to come, they do so because they love Hawaii, and this is a beautiful place to visit. So at the end of the day, you know, we compromised. Both sides wanted something different. We were able to come up with a solution. And now we have enough funding for all the tent purposes to get to Almona shopping center. Now, down the road, if there's talk of extending the rail to UH Manoa, or even into Kapolei and Kapolei City, then the legislature and the city council will have to vet that and discuss it. So it's possible that we might take another bite at the apple, but in terms of the current plan, hopefully the rail will be completed by 2024-25 from Kapolei to Croc Center to Almona shopping center. Okay. Good. I guess that's good. If you support rail, yes. And there's going to be many opportunities. I have so many questions about the rail, but let's don't. That could be another segment. That's a whole other segment. Or two or three? Yes. They've been talking about that for years, so we can't. But at least you can meet the September 15 deadline. Okay. Next, let's talk about you. Now, I have known you since you worked for the city and county. And I have watched you champion so, so many bills and projects and what have you. And now you're talking about leaving the Senate for anybody that doesn't know, if you run for an office, a local office, you have to give up the one you have. Yes. If you run for a federal office, you do not. Correct. And that's called the Fossil Bill, if you remember. Correct. I'm in midterm. The key is I'm in midterm. Yes. And so you would have to give up being a senator to run for a lieutenant governor. That's correct. And that's what you want to do. Yes. You know, I've thought long and hard about this. And I met the, excuse me, at the stage in my career where I need to determine and decide what I want to do for the next 10 to 15 years. And I feel that I've had a successful legislative career. People have asked me, do you really want to run because you've done so well and we like you there. But I look at it from the perspective that I need to be able to give back more. And I feel that as the lieutenant governor, as the number two person, I could give back more. If you like what I'm doing now as a state senator, Marsha, imagine what I can do as the number two person in state government. Well, that's exactly it. That was my next question. Usually, well, since Ben Caetano was the last lieutenant governor, that was really active. So that's a nothing job. Tell me how you feel. What can you do as lieutenant governor that makes it a real job and not just somebody filling up space? That's a very good question. What I tell people, it's not the position, the title, state rep, state senator, lieutenant governor. It's the person. So if you know my style and my personality and how I have been in the legislature, I will continue that. I will be vocal. I will be an advocate. I will get behind issues and causes. Now, being a partner of the governor, I will not step on his toes. I will not embarrass him or her. And what I want to do is find the issues that need work because there are hundreds of issues out there that need help. And I can see myself continuing, for example, law enforcement reform and changes, prison reform, prisoner rehabilitation, building an aerospace industry, expanding the medical marijuana program, building a hemp industry, working on job creation with science, technology, engineering, math, math. So I would tell the governor that let me know what you want me to do as your second in command. However, if there are not too many things, I have a list and I will work on them because that is what I do as a lawmaker. And you have to understand the lieutenant governor is, in the primary, elected separately from the governor. And I am still an elected official by the people of Hawaii. And if I'm privileged enough to be lieutenant governor, it's because the voters want me to continue what I'm doing and appreciate it. Okay. You gave us a long list here. Yes. But the thing that comes up right away is the hemp industry. Yes. Knowing what I know about hemp, that is such what it can be. Yes. What it can be as an industry. For instance, if we just planted it at Barbara's point, it would clean up, it would clean up the pollution. Soil remediation, yes. So what's the holdup? Why can't we get behind this and really make it into something? Why can't we have treeless paper? What's the holdup? Actually, we've made significant progress due to the federal government passing Congress the Farm Act. And in the Farm Act, states will be allowed to create a hemp industry, you know, research and development. But part of the Farm Act includes marketing. And I had a conversation with the Department of Agriculture staff. And that marketing entails a farmer, a company being able to grow hemp and create a product and sell the product. What this means is this can all happen in Hawaii by 2018. That's six months. Exactly. This is very exciting news. It is exciting. I don't know if too many people know this. But what I'm getting at is that there was an article in today's Civil Beat about the emergency of agriculture. The need, especially when you look at the storms around the world and you think, we need to take care of ourselves. So we need all kind of agriculture industry. Right. And the problem at the federal level is cannabis. Cannabis is still a schedule one. And that's the issue. Since cannabis is still schedule one, hemp is part of cannabis. Yes. Let me say to our audience, the plant, the cannabis plant, or the hemp plant, at one level is cannabis. And another, as it moves up, it's hemp, it's cannabis and hash hash. Right. So they come from different parts of the plant, different chemicals are in different parts of the plant. But the hemp does not have the same thing as the cannabis that makes you high. Exactly. So this is so different. Hemp has low THC. Right. So you've got, I'm sorry, you have the CBD and the THC. The THC is what gets a person high. Hemp has very low THC and in some cases it's non-existent and you can't get high from hemp. That's why hemp is grown throughout the world. You could buy hemp products in the United States, but you can't grow it. And that's where with the new farm act, this is all going to change and Hawaii is poised for 2018. Okay. We have to go to break and when we come back, we will talk more about some of the other projects that are new Lieutenant Governor. I've already ordained you as a new Lieutenant Governor. Thank you. We'll be right back. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. Some say scuba divers are the poor man's astronaut. At Dive Heart we believe that to be true. We say forget the moon. Dive Heart can help children, adults and veterans of all abilities escape gravity right here on Earth. Search DiveHeart.org and imagine the possibilities in your life. We are visiting with my dear friend Senator Will Sparrow and we were talking about of all things hemp. But that's the biggest conversation in Hawaii is hemp and medical marijuana. Yes. So yesterday we saw the proposal of how to purchase medical marijuana from the dispensary using your smartphone. Now, because medical marijuana, all marijuana is a Schedule 1 narcotic, I guess that's what they call it, which it isn't, it's a weed, but that's a different story. So it is a cash business. None of the banks, because the banks are controlled by the federal government, can take money from the dispensaries, the labs, etc. And because it's a cash business, it's also, well I know the one dispensary that we visited, they have a security person to walk with you to your car so that no one, and then they have an ATM machine so you don't have to carry cash with you. So there's all of these securities. So now they're talking about an app for your smartphone. Yes, the eGate administration working with a credit union out of Colorado is looking at cashless transactions at these dispensaries for fear that people might try to steal or rob these dispensaries. And it would do basically an app or debit card type of a situation. Personally, I'm not sure yet on my opinion on that whether it's good or bad because I know many people would probably still want to go in there with cash. And there's no other place that I'm aware of, and maybe you could help that we tell a business or a company that you can't accept cash. Well I think they have to still accept the cash. No, they're looking at no cash at all. Because there are a lot of people that don't have smartphones. I have a dear, dear friend that she has a smartphone but she doesn't know how to use it. I understood, but to deal with that what will happen is the dispensaries will work with the individuals at the dispensaries. So you would still have to log into an app, but the dispensary would do that for you and you could use the dispensary's tablet or computer for the transaction. That's what would happen, because you have to be present in order to do the transaction. So, well, okay, now I have a debit card from the bank, but I have to put money in the bank first before I can use my debit card. So how do you deposit money into that Colorado credit union? Well, I haven't seen the system yet, but I'm assuming that through the app you'll be able to do all that. So patient or caregiver of the patient would have to have access to an individual app that you are logged into. And that's really the crux of it all, that you must be online in order to do this transaction. And my understanding, no cash at all. So I'm still, okay, but I have to have money somewhere for the app to take the money out of my account. In some place, I have to have some money. Right, and like I said, I'm sure the app, once you get into your app, then you'll be... Would you take it from my local bank? Yes, that's my guess, that somehow everything will be connected, because this is a system that is already being used on the mainland. Oh, okay. So they work that out? Yeah, it's not a new system. But I don't think in the mainland it's mandatory, it's an option. We may be the first state to make it mandatory that every dispenser must use this app system. Well, my question then becomes, if I am the owner of the dispensary, then I have to pay a Hawaii state tax. And that's not with an app. They want a check or whatever. But that's another issue then. Yes, but they have to pay the state tax. So how do they pay that if all of their money goes... Well, I'm assuming that's built into the system. That will be built into the system. But I'm sure the state wouldn't go for this if they couldn't see that they were going to get paid. Correct, right, so you have to figure that at this stage, all the eyes are dotted and the T's are crossed, and this system has been reviewed and analyzed, they've checked with the other states, and our state has determined this will work for Hawaii. Okay, now real quick, tell us, run through some of these other projects you have. You talked about prison reform, housing, low-cost housing. Yeah, I mean, in terms of prison reform, the big issue next session is going to be what are we going to do with OCCC? This is the jail in Kalihi, and there's talk of moving it to another location and or rebuilding it more modern, more efficient, because it's a very old, dilapidated facility, and we need to do something with it. If we move it, it could cost us $600 to $700 million to replace it. I'm of the opinion, though, whatever we do, one part of the equation has to be rehabilitation and a re-entry center, because every inmate, or at least 96%, 98% of the inmates are going to be released one of these days. So do you want an inmate who has had programming and rehabilitation, or one who hasn't? The answer is obvious. We want an inmate that has been rehabilitated or has gotten some help, and that's why one of the issues I'm pushing for is the re-entry center. That's great. I like that. Next, about housing, because we have so many homeless people, and so many of them are working, but they can't pay $1,800 a month rent. Well, there's many things going on in the housing field, but one of the big issues is to just build more housing. Back to him. Yes, and as a matter of fact, I believe there is a home in Maui that is built out of him, so him could be a building material, absolutely. But it's going to take us probably 7 or 10 years to build enough housing, because our need on Oahu is $22,000. One area I want to push for the next 10 years, 22,000 units. But I've been pushing in others for a safe zone. Basically, this is a legal place where the homeless can go, because what's happening is, all we're doing is pushing them from one area to another. The city council passes a no-sit and lie zone, so when you say, okay, no sitting and lying in this area, what do they do? They just go to the next community. And we're just pushing them around. As a matter of fact, you remember Kaka Ako Park in that area? It used to be a ghetto in a shanty town, and we cleaned it up. The homeless are back in Kaka Ako Park, because they have nowhere to go. So Mayor Kim on the Big Island recently opened the first government sanctioned safe zone. And it appears to be working. I had a conversation with him about a week ago, and he said, right now it started with 32. He's looking to expand that island-wide on the Big Island to maybe up to 500 homeless. I'd like to see the state and Arsene County also create a safe zone somewhere. Sand Island would be an ideal location where I think we could use up to 20% of the park and easily house 1,000 homeless. And then at this safe zone, you give them the resources, the assistance, the help that they need to transition. So basically, a safe zone, all it is, is just another way of saying a transitional housing area. Now, does that have to go through the legislature? What did it take to get that started? It would have to go through the legislature and or the city council. And there's been attempts, but it hasn't been successful. Last year we did pass a bill that is mandating that there will be a working group to look into the safe zone issue. So that's a good start. And hopefully, I actually need to check to see if this working group is up and running because we do need to have it up and running. Yes. Not just on paper, but real people doing something. Right. And hopefully, they can have a recommendation by 2018. And then we still need to put money into our infrastructure because along the rail line, there's state land. UH West O'ahu, Mayor Wright, Ivalet Housing, the stadium, Honolulu Community College and Leeward Community College. We are the biggest landowner along the rail line. And there's some public schools among them. Yes. But what we need to do is to invest money in infrastructure in the sewers, in the sidewalks so that there's capacity to build high density communities, transit oriented development. And that's part of the equation as well. Okay. We have one minute to go. What else you've got? Real quick. Well, I think the final one is the aerospace industry. I've been working on this for many years. By next year, Hawaii could have a federal spaceport license. And this will be the beginning of space tourism where out of the Kona Airport, people will be able to fly into lower earth orbit, go into basically outer space and come back down. It'll be a niche market for tourism. Wow. Yes. Next year, huh? Next year we expected Kona. It was to get the license. And then the companies need to come in and build. Exactly. Exactly. Wonderful. That's probably two, three, four years out. Okay. So now you promise me you will come back because that's a lot. So we need to talk about all of that. There's many more things we can talk about and I appreciate the opportunity, Marsha. Please, please do come back. Thank you all so much for being with us as a pleasure with the senator. And we look forward to visiting with you again. Aloha.