 Politics and Land in Hawaii with Dennis Isaki on Think Tech Hawaii. Today, we're fortunate to have with us Miley Shimabukuro, State Senator, representing Wai'anae District 22. She attended the Olani School and the William S. Richardson School of Law in Hawaii. She has served in the State House of Representatives and was appointed to the State Senate by Governor Abercrombie, who plays Colleen Hanna-Booster, which has been since 2010. As I recall, Governor Abercrombie also appointed Malama Solomon at the same time. Miley, welcome to Politics in Hawaii and on Think Tech Hawaii. Please tell us a little about yourself, your key accomplishments, and why you want to continue to serve in the State Senate. Miley? Thank you, Dennis. It's a pleasure to be here. Well, I can tell you that I'm an attorney by trade. I've been a legal services organization for longer than I can want to share several decades now. That really opened my eyes, the importance of having people in politics that really see how it impacts the most vulnerable in our society because for people like me and you, I mean, what happens at the square building doesn't have a huge impact necessarily on our day-to-day lives, but for people whose existence relies on the safety net of our state, what we do can have a major impact. I saw that firsthand before I got into politics when the state said they were going to limit welfare benefits to disabled people to six months, saying, oh, that's enough time for them to transition from state assistance to federal assistance, and our legal services organization had to file a class action lawsuit because that meant I think that the time they were, I want to say it's something like 4,000 or 5,000 people who would basically become homeless and destitute if their benefits were to be cut off in six months because we knew that when you try to get onto federal social security, it takes about two to three years to get on. So anyway, thank goodness at the very last 11th hour, we were able to get an injunction against the state, but it really opened my eyes to the importance of having the right testimonies and the right facts and information before the policymakers, before these kinds of laws are passed. So it's been extremely rewarding for me to be in, to have both positions to be a legal services attorney and to be a politician at the same time because I've gotten to see firsthand how bills that I passed, which may seem small in someone else's eyes, make a huge impact in someone else's life, in my client's lives. And just for an example, one of the bills that I got passed when I first got in was that if you were trying to claim for welfare disability, in the past, you could only claim a physical or a mental disability. You couldn't claim both. And we would see so many times that people would be denied welfare because they couldn't show evidence of their whole body. And so now we're able to bring that kind of evidence into these kinds of hearings because now the law, I was able to get the law changed to say you can present those arguments. So I've seen several people that would have been denied without that bill but were able to get approved. And then and that kind of thing has been just extremely satisfying for me. So I feel very, very fortunate to have the position that I do. Yeah, thanks. I know you have what we call it the Y and I district rate. Does it include the the par plan? The landfill? Yes, yes. Yeah, the misnamed one, I'm an oligarch. Yeah, I know. To this day, I mean, it's just a mystery why it's it's in Nanakuli, but why I'm an oligarch. But yes, yes. So my district actually starts actually at the edge of Kalei, Loa, so right where there's the down to earth, you know, there's that company commons mall is where my district starts. And then it hit from there and heads west towards the end of point. What about the coal fired plan? Par. Yeah, is that part? I think par might be in Gabbard's district, Senator Gabbard's possibly. But that. Yeah, definitely. I don't have part of it might be, you know, because I have part of Campbell does your part. Yeah, possibly. Par might be I know. I know definitely the car par plan. Oh, yeah, it definitely is. Yeah. And then. You saw some of the some magazine and online thing about your district being one of the. Or should I put it? Not not the best place to live in Hawaii. Oh, yeah, I mean, that's been something that has always plagued our coastline is that well, we're very isolated. You know, there's only one way in and one way out. And so that that makes the traffic, you know, very, very, you know, that's that's a constant source of stress for everyone that lives on this coast and a constant source of concern too, because if there's some kind of emergency week, we all might end up trapped here and unable to get in and out and that kind of thing. And that's happened many, many times. But on top of that, you know, we also bear the burden of so many environmental injustices on the Wai'anae coast. So we've got, yeah, I've got the both the municipal solid waste landfill and then the construction demolition landfill. We have Makua military reservation. We have the Lululea military reservation. We have the Kana Point tracking station. We have a sewer. We have a lot of the telecommunication lines run through this district as well. H-Power is right in our backyard. I mean, yeah, there's a whole slew of environmental things that happen out here. And also it's very poverty stricken. We have the highest concentration of Hawaiians in the world outside of Ni'i Hau. And the Hawaiians are people who are illegally overthrown and dispossessed of their land, their culture, their way of life. And unlike, you know, you and I probably write whose parents were immigrants and chose to come to United States to make a better way of life. For them, it was imposed, this Western culture was imposed upon them. And so it's still, you know, you can still see it here. The suffering of the indigenous culture is very apparent on the Waianae coast. And you know, at the same time, of course, it's a place of amazing beauty. And I feel so fortunate to be, to have grown up around the Hawaiian culture where it's perpetuated and preserved because there are so many beautiful things about it. And in so many ways, the Hawaiian people are really finding their way now too. And so there's so much to be celebrated about their culture as well. And there's so many positive things that are happening on this coast in addition to the negative, the bad things. Yeah, thanks. Yeah, along that lines, recently I guess the legislature has appropriated, was it 600 million to DHHL? Which I'm sure, you know, you're spearheaded. Can you tell us a little bit about it? Yes, I mean, it's so exciting that the bill that passed, this is Senator Keohokalole's bill. It was his companion, HP 2511. And this measure is really, you know, it's monumental and historic to have $600 million. This is the biggest one-time cash infusion that DHHL has ever gotten. And what's really exciting about it as well is that for the first time, it allows DHHL to provide cash awards to people on the wait list. And so, you know, what Star Advertiser and others have pointed out is that, you know, there's 30,000 on the wait list. The biggest demand for homesteads is on Oahu. And yet the smallest amount of land holdings left to build homesteads is Oahu. So if you just, obviously, just look at that, there's no way that the state can satisfy the needs of the people on the wait list if we keep going the way we're doing it now. So someone brilliant thought of this idea and said, hey, rather than limit the wait listers to the land holdings that we have, why don't we give them cash and just say, you know, hey, if you wanna go and purchase a property, fee simple, outside the trust lands, you have that right, that option. So if I'm a homesteader and I wanna wait list or I wanna buy a house in Kailua or Hawaii Kai or, you know, Waipahu or whatever, I have that ability. I don't have to just limit myself to where DHHL has its homesteads. And so this is very, very exciting. And it also will provide, you know, what the hope is that it'll give them, give homes that there's much more flexibility than it do now because right now, if you live on a homestead, there's pros and there's cons, you know, because it's a 99 year lease, but you don't hold title to the land in a way. It's a leasehold too, 99 year. So there's limitations of what you can do if you wanna get an equity line of credit, if you wanna sell it, if you wanna do all these different things, there's much more strings, you have a lot more, you know, your hands are tied in ways that pretty simple owners are not. And so the hope is that with this new program, we can really help beneficiaries to build wealth in the way that people in the private sector can and to have much more flexibility in handling their real estate in much the way that people outside the homesteads can. So anyway, stay tuned for, you know, how that's gonna come about. That the talk was that it would be maybe 100,000 that we would offer as a cash award to someone on the wait list as an alternative to waiting to get a lot awarded to you. Okay, well, it still stands at 50% but quantum, I guess it has to be decided on by Congress, right? If there's any changes. Yes, yes, you know, and well, it would be, it would need to be initiated by the state. I guess Congress could come in and if they wanted to change, I guess they could. But the state, I would think that usually the way that we change laws within DHHL or via state, a state bill passing first and then getting approved by Congress. Right, right. And that question has come up before us several times. And it's just, I think it's just too soon to make that drastic of a change. When you have 30,000 that are still waiting for that are 50%, to then add to the mix, now we're gonna reduce the blood quantum. It's unfortunately, it's a sad thing to have to divide the Hawaiians in that way. But at this point in time, I think it's too soon to try to bring such that kind of change into the picture. But what we did do, however, is that as far as successorship goes, the current law says you can be one quarter and still get it become a successor. But we passed the bill to be one 32nd. And Congress has not approved that yet, but Congressman Cahele did introduce a measure to get Congress to approve it. So we're hoping that that'll pass. And so then that'll really allow someone who holds a current homestead to kind of, to have a surety that'll stay in their family. If they can pass it down to someone with as little as one 32nd blood quantum that can really provide them security. Okay, thanks. How about moving to the HDA's 34 million dollar contract with CNHA for marketing and destination management? Any comments on that? Oh, I think that is, that's fantastic. You know, CNHA is just done doing amazing work. And I'm so glad that HTA and the state have recognized them as a leader and really a ground breaker in terms of how to find ways to really help, not just Hawaiians, but our community. And so I think it's a great thing. I mean, what CNHA did when the pandemic struck and Mary Monarch was eliminated and all the crafters and vendors that could no longer sell their, where's the Mary Monarch Festival? So then CNHA said, you know what? We're gonna put you guys all online. And their pop-up makeke is like so incredibly popular that they're overwhelmed with orders, you know? Which is great, you know? And so now these vendors who thought that they're devastated by the pandemic, now they're better off than they were before. Many of them are getting orders from around the world. And so, yeah, so I think it's great. I think CNHA will really help HTA to go to the next level. Yeah, go ahead. Continue going to OHA. The state still owes OHA some more money. Yeah, you know, what I'm really happy to report that this session, Senator Keohokalole's bill, SB2021 passed. And this is a bill that was a long time coming that OHA had been trying to get their public lands trust revenue increased. And we finally did. We're giving them $64 million in retroactive pay and finally increasing their per-rata share, their annual share from $15.1 million to $25.1 million per year. And setting up a negotiating committee as well to look at issues going forward. So it really was a triumphant year for OHA as well as DHHL. And I know that there's still more work to be done, but I'm so happy that we finally did something in the right direction. Yeah, you've been busy on your committee. Yes, I was so fortunate to be in this committee at this time of year. Yeah, you know, like, well, you know, we talk about CNHA and tourism. I just heard today, the lieutenant governor talking about more taxes or impact fees for tourists. And he said they would decrease the low-end tourists. But some of us are low-end, you know, people who travel to other places. And I wouldn't want them to say, like, you know, you just kind of come, you don't have enough money. So, seriously, I don't know what do you think about that? You know, I hear you, you know? And actually, I mean, it's interesting because the whole reason, my understanding is the whole reason that we had this huge surplus this year, unprecedented, I think it was a $2 billion surplus is because of the surge in tourism. And we don't even have the full blast tourism going on, right? I mean, it's mostly from US and places like that because a lot of the international places still aren't fully reopened. So whatever we're doing, we're doing it right. I mean, I told that to HTA and I did the HLTA candidate questionnaire and I said, you know, keep doing what you're doing because it's working. And so, even if that does mean we're bringing in that, you know, the tourists that shop at Costco and that like to make their own food. And I mean, it's working because we have a surplus. And I agree, yeah, I'm the same way, you know? And so, I hope that we can find a balance, you know? Because I really liked the County at one point was thinking about allowing bed and breakfast that are hosted. And I think that's something that I think most of us could embrace. You know, I think as long as it's a homeowner, it's our neighbor, we have no neighbors that half the year they live somewhere else, you know? But I think, and I think that's fine with us if they were to host a bed and breakfasts because at least we know there's accountability and we know who they are. So I think we should strike a balance between attracting the high-end tourists and then those tourists that are the more economical types like me and you. Like people have commented on the hotel room rates right now it's kind of going up, you know? Like people want to come from Oahu to Koi and say like we can offer the hotels anymore. Even the Kamai and the rates like 300, 400 bucks. So it, and also the traffic. We've been, you know, with the pandemic as if we have been happy like, oh, traffic's so nice. And then now it's starting to come back but not as much as a pandemic but get all the things that goes along with increased tourism, right? Such as transportation. Are you on death committee also? I am, I am. And yeah, you know, with transportation, I mean, I'm really, I know it was really a struggle because at the end, towards the end of the pandemic and honestly it's still a problem now but I know it was really, really expensive to try to rent a car. And then that's when people started doing Turo and started raising their own cars out. And hey, my hats off to people like that that are entrepreneurial like that and can think of ways to make their own money. But one of the things that we did is that we passed the rental car surcharge. And that is something that once it really gets going and our tourist economy starts going again, it's gonna be a great thing actually for locals because it's gonna provide DOT with funding to, you know, to improve our highways and all the infrastructure things that people are always complaining about to us. I mean, for all of us elected officials, that's a constant thing. We're always getting complaints from people about traffic and bridges and roads and, you know, whatever potholes and you name it, that's a constant source of frustration. And so I think the rental car surcharge thing can be something that hopefully won't impact on Ma'aina too much and that tourists won't feel too much and it won't be too much of a hit but at the same time can really be a win-win by improving traffic for everyone, tourists and locals alike. Yeah, I understand that the rental car companies shipped a whole bunch of them back out of the state during the pandemic and I don't think many of them came back out of the car. So I think the Turo and those other car rentals are still doing good. Let's look out here. I know why not area at the coastal highway, the environment, the sea level rise is a concern. Any thing you're doing on that? Oh yeah, that is a constant issue of concern for our coastline and so a couple of the things that we're working on are a parallel route for the one I closed. I mean, that's both for emergency purposes and just for the daily grind and the daily issue of traffic. And so we have, there's $4 million that all of us area legislators, you know, Rep Gates, Rep Eli and myself and our colleagues obtained for the one I closed and the governor did release those funds to DOT, $4 million to work on that. And we're looking at opening, there's a back road up in the valley of Paakea Road and locals know that that's a well-known area that you go to when Farrington Highway is shut down but there's a one point, one and a half mile stretcher show that's gated off except in times of emergency. And so the funds are intended to open those gates and so that for a daily, on a daily basis we can use those back roads. It's a big undertaking though because it's gonna involve having, you know the government will have to take over both Paakea and Lululee Naval Road. Paakea is privately owned and the Naval Road is owned by the Navy. And so, and they're both gonna have to be brought up to county standards. So it's a big undertaking. We're working on that and also Makaha Surfing Beach area. The state's going for a grant to reroute that highway as well further inland. Yeah, he's talking about, you know the alternate highway on Kauai is the Oilua Bridge. If that is closed then connecting the Kapaasai to the Lululee you get to go way up Malka in a okay road. So it's a similar thing. You get to look at it. And you know, there's all the talk about sea level rise in so many years. Waikiki is gonna be inundated and I'm sure part of Waianae is low area too. So what's being done or if anything on the sea level rise concern? Yeah, well, I'm happy to say that I got a bill passed SB 2865 for $40 million of special purpose revenue bonds the Dibsawaii and they are working on carbon capture and trying to take our carbon waste and making to liquefied food grade carbon dioxide. And that's gonna be used for agriculture and renewable energy. And just to take us a step more forward towards renewable energy and getting off of coal and addressing climate change in that way. And it's very, very exciting. I know that our time is running out so let me know just signally if I need to stop. But it's very exciting because Dibsawaii is owned by Keone Ford who's a Hawaiian from Waianae young man. And he has a whole consortium of people working with and they're very, very excited about the potential of this project, not just on the Waianae coast but on statewide to really to finally have our own carbon dioxide which I guess is a very valuable commodity and can go a long way towards really using clean energy. So he said it can help with hemp production. He's been using it now to do, he has a DOD contract where they use the carbon dioxide to clean, I guess it's machinery and planes that we like without any kind of waste products or any kind of toxins going back into the waste stream. And so he really knows the potential of carbon dioxide and what it can do to help our economy and what a valuable commodity it is. And he would, he's looking at places like Par because you mentioned Par is gonna schedule to close, I think, right in the next year, I assume, right? Yeah, the coal-fired plant is. Yeah, they're supposed to stop doing coal or something. And so he would take the carbon dioxide waste from a place like Par and turn that into this valuable liquefied food-grade carbon dioxide. Talking about renewable energy, as you may know, Hawaii Island Utility Cooperative leads a nation in renewable energy. So we've been doing good and IKU is following along and doing more and more renewable energy. Getting on housing, what's your take on what they're talking about? You know, like affordable housing, housing prices and all that. Yeah, well, I really, I'm excited about what Stanley Chang is doing in our chair of housing committee is he really, he's taking a delegation to Vienna this over the interim in September because he's looking at countries like Vienna and Singapore where housing is a right, like how public educations are right in the United States. He wants to make it the same, bring it to the same level in Hawaii. And I think he's onto something because, that's why we see the brain drain. We see people, they can't afford to stay anymore. It's so tragic when people see their kids and their grandkids have to leave because they can't afford to buy their own house in Hawaii. And so I think I support the Aloha Homes concept that Senator Chang is trying to pursue where really the state takes it on, you know, that we become the provider of public housing and we say public housing, it's really high quality public housing. So it's like what, you know, like the condos you see in Kakaako, that's the kind of public housing we're talking about. And in countries like Singapore, 80% of the people are more live in public housing because the government has made it so attractive and so viable for people. And but it's no longer a profit-making thing. Housing has become like public education, it's a right. Yeah, well, I guess makes feelings about this quote Singapore model. You've been several years ago, you're talking about building like 300 square foot units and on the Oahu, I think it was in Kakaako. And they were like, oh, we're gonna sell it for 400,000 or something. It's kind of steep on that. There was several years ago, it's because it's good for Singapore, you know, this is Hawaii. I think many people have said the government red tape has a lot to do with the housing costs over here and the lack of housing or, you know, the time it takes to do housing. I think we're gonna look at that. Long time ago, I keep repeating it, like when HFDC first came on and they built a couple of it from scratch and on housing, they had what they call Act 15, we just kind of extreme that they could bypass some of the regulations, the agency could do that when they built, you know, it was like a two-edged sword and the county and the city and the county say, okay, you bypassed, we're not gonna inspect it. So you upkeep it on that. I think the state is still paying for that because they didn't work together with the county on the roads and stuff. They had another extreme thing on the land use commission. They told developers, you gotta do 60% affordable, which the developers kind of like chopped paid too much into the profits, I guess, but what HFDC did, the original HFDC, they tied in market homes as well as the affordable and had this fast track. And granted, you can make money on the market homes to help subsidize the lower ones. This is another thing too, you know, if you make it easier for the developers, you know, I know developers get that able to, you know, cut out some of the red tape, then they'll have more housing for people like you and me unless people trickle down to the full, or they call it affordable, it's a misnomer. Just because you call it affordable doesn't make it. But down the lower cost homes in this, the county and the state goes, oh, we're in that home, so we gotta do it. We're gonna exempt ourselves from everything and we're gonna do it fast. We still do, you do the homes, but I think, you know, if you make it easier for the other guys to build it then, you wouldn't have to do it yourselves. Any comments on that? Yeah, I hear you. And because here on the YNAI Coast, we saw that firsthand because when there was the homeless crisis, Governor Lingell declared an emergency and lifted a lot of the permitting requirements and exempted, well, waived a lot of them. And so we saw like rapid development of much needed, there was an emergency shelter that was built similar to IHS and it was like through these amazing military structures that were put up. And to this day, it's still here, which is great. And it serves, it's a 24-hour shelter. It's exactly what we needed on the YNAI Coast. And there was several other projects that were made. Lulukikakui was made with Stanford car, another transitional shelter, and there were several others. And I think there were several made built in Kuala Lumpur as well. And so yeah, that kind of thing. Sorry to cut you off. Sorry, I just checked the time. We were running out of time. Any last words? I guess if I just tell people that, I welcome your feedback, your comments, concerns, you can reach me. My email is myleshimabukuro at yahoo.com and my website is electmyle.com, electmyle.com. But thank you so much to Think Tech Hawaii for providing this programming and inviting me to be on the show. I appreciate you Dennis, thank you and your team. Yeah, Paolo, Paolo, Senator Myleshimabukuro and Paolo to our viewers on Think Tech Hawaii. If you'd like to think back for your media shows, please help support the nonprofit platform with a donation. Aloha, mahalo, a hui hou, ma la ma pono. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.