 Today we're checking in with State Senator Sharon Moriwaki. I feel like I know Sharon Moriwaki for 20 years, and the reason I feel that way is I know Sharon Moriwaki for 20 years. It's been a great couple of years. Tara, we're going to take a look at the 2024 legislative session, and we're going to explore what the issues are, what the tone is, and what the prospects are. Now, she was elected originally in 2018, so she's been there for six, I get this right, six years. And we want to find out more about her background. We want to find out what she does all day over there. I know she's very busy, but I am really delighted to have her on the show. So Sharon, welcome to the show. Welcome to Think Tech. You know Think Tech so well. You are part of the development of our organization. It's really good to be here, Jay. It really is. Nice to see you. It's been a while. So nice to see and be part of the Think Tech family. Exactly. And we are so happy to have you. So you're running again. Is some kind of masochist? Why are you running again? You have so much to do. You're so busy. You've got all these issues hanging all around you, and you want to run again. Tell me about that. Well, you know, you get involved with a number of issues, and it's really hard when you think my job isn't done yet. And I think that's why I'm running again. The job never is over, but there are certain priority areas that I've started to work on, and the work isn't done. So let's talk about your philosophy, your engagement with the community of Hawaii, your district of the legislature, your philosophy of dealing with people, your vision for the state. Can you just ramble a little bit and tell me about those things? You know, when I ran, we were fighting the high-rise luxury condos in Kaka'ako, and I really didn't expect to be running. I think I picked the short straw. And so here I pause. Because the community didn't have a voice in Kaka'ako. It was a new area. We didn't even know what this organization called HCDA, Hawaii Community Development Authority, and we kept fighting it. We said, where is the community in HCDA? Community development, but there's no community. So it started that way. And I think that's been my philosophy all through the five, I guess, no, six years. I've been here is to be a voice for the community, to be a voice for those of us who thought we had a voice, but really didn't have a voice, and to try to bring that forward. So I do send out newsletters. It was every day almost during the pandemic. So I've been through a lot with this term. It was the first of pandemic when I first got in, and then it's now morphed into a line up. One thing after another, yeah. One thing after another that we've been through, and all through that, problems haven't gone away. There's been the homeless problem. There's been the sea level rise problem. Workforce development, we've gotten major shortage of people leaving the state because of the lack of affordable housing, the lack of jobs, the lack of training. So all of those are still in the forefront, and it's all very important for where we go in the future, and keeping our young people here, keeping them to thrive here and growing our economy. So all of this is still front and center. So I'm here to make sure that some of these problems that we have started work on actually see some, not the end of the tunnel, but some fruition that we've laid the foundation, the real strong foundation for a growing, thriving economy, and young people staying here. And keeping track is, we're there, Jave. We've got to keep track of keeping our elderly, respected, honored, and cared for. And that's why I'm also the co-convener of what's called the Kupuna Caucus at the legislature. Oh, you're doing a program on that. Tell us about the program with the Kupuna Caucus. Yeah, so over the years, we've been focused on healthy aging, whether it's preventing falls, making sure that we've got exercise programs that we've been looking at a number of different ways of keeping our elders healthy. But on the other end of the spectrum, there is the frail elders. And if we don't watch ourselves and watch our diet and exercise, there's really on the other end of the spectrum how you age gracefully and age in place as long as you can and have services when you get frail and that's physical as well as with Alzheimer's and dementia on that end of the spectrum. How do we make sure that we've got services there to keep you as the quality of life as best we can to age and place? So that's been the neglected part because it's so costly. I guess we haven't talked about it. We haven't kept up with that because it is so costly. So that's great. We have the flyer for that. Can we show the flyer for that? Oh, there it is. Can you tell us about the program itself, the gathering, so to speak? Well, that small little print at the top, we can't neglect long-term care anymore is really the focus of what we've been looking at for the last couple of years now is what is the future of long-term care? We've been talking a lot about healthy aging, but on the other hand, how do we look at a more person-centered system of care as the other end of the spectrum? And we haven't been keeping up with that continuum. So a lot of times we're looking at skilled nursing facilities, but you know that we have the high demand. But the beds are for the needs for the frail elders. The nursing homes aren't taking people in. Why? Not because we don't have beds. It's because we have worker shortage, so they can't get people in because we don't have the staff. And the skilled staff, trained staff, to bring people in. So on that end, we've got a workforce shortage. We need to look at how do we finance this because it is costly. And on the other hand, it's the home and community-based services that are much less costly, but we don't have the people on the being paid on the community-based services and which would really help because most of our elders want to stay at home. So how do we wrap services around them at the home and community-based level and offset the cost that's really the high cost in, which is a skilled nursing facility? So those are the issues that we're looking at next week, actually, both in a work session with about 60 providers that we're bringing in resources from across the country, letting us know what has worked, what hasn't worked, and looking at that and taking that forward to a legislative briefing before my colleagues in terms of what is the system of care that we should have that's focused on the person they can go in and out of services, and how do we do that? And what is the kind of workforce we need to be training them? And ultimately, how do we fund that? How do we fund that in a way that we really can sustain a system where people really get the quality care that they need at the time they need it? Yeah, there's jobs there too. So tell us, can we attend? Can the public come to this? How do we do it? When and where? So it's going to be at the legislature, the capital, the state capital auditorium where we used to have the Hawaii Energy Policy Forum briefings, same thing. It's going to be there and it's going to be from one to three down in the auditorium and it'll be next Thursday from one to 3 p.m. Please come, we want a whole lot of people to hear the challenges and possible solutions. And we do have a number of bills that we're following and we hope that everybody will get involved and know what kinds of programs we're trying. One is a major one is a master plan for long-term care and we really would like you to get involved, testify, make sure that we do that. And then the next year, we start working really seriously on having a long-term care plan and really having a system of care that would really help everybody in the long run. We all will get old and need care. Well, let me tell you that so many of my friends, including retired lawyers that I have known over the years are getting old now and they're getting sick and they need help. And it really doesn't matter what they did in their lives. The fact is that right now, if they get older, it's a humanitarian thing that we need to provide for them, to give them a soft-life landing. And it is a crisis in many ways for many people that tear your heart out to see what happens to them. So I compliment you on this issue, on attending to this issue, on attending to the Kapuna Caucus and setting up this program. And it reminds me actually of one of the threads in your original campaign, getting into the Senate in 2018, is where you articulated that we need to care for each other. And you have been faithful to that all these years. You really have, Sharon. And I care a lot about you caring. And I must say that you are unique in that way because you really do care. And this is an expression of that caring and we should all get on board with that. Let me also add that you're a great communicator. You were a great communicator in the Energy Policy Forum and you attracted people from all sides of the energy industry as never before and never after. And in the bottom line is, you're the kind of person who draws people around and you create community wherever you go. That's what it was like in the Energy Policy Forum. And when you send out your newsletters, I am always impressed where that shows through. It shows through every time I get one of your newsletters. So thank you for being caring all these years. Thank you and thank you for remembering. That has been my theme, caring for each other. And it's kind of schmaltzy, but I do mean it. I wanted to ask you, you talk about your district. Your district runs all along the south shore of Oahu. It's a huge district and it's a diverse district. It's a diverse district in terms of the people, the demography and in terms of the businesses there, includes Waikiki, for example. And can you talk about your district and how you relate to your district and how your district has been and how it's changing and what it's like now? Thank you, Jay. Yeah, it is a very diverse dynamic district. It covers Waikiki, Kakaako, Makali and the Alamwana area. So it's quite diverse. We've got the hotels, we've got on the Waikiki side, but what connects them all is this coastline. And that's why sea level rise has been really concerned. And we've been looking at projects to look at how do we manage the coastline, sea level rise and climate change. And then on the Kakaako side, we've got young professionals, people who are really looking at technology, looking at how we can really develop a workforce that is, I'd say, the future. So we've got the Sandbox, the Entrepreneur Sandbox, Highway Technology Development Corporation, all there in Kakaako. We also have the John A. Burns School of Medicine there. And also the Cancer Center, Cancer Research Center. So all of that is really quite... Oh, the other thing we have is the Creative Media is sitting there in the Sandbox. So we've got a lot of real talent and the future healthcare creative industries as well as technology. It's just that it hasn't kind of come to fruition, but those are all, again, the future and economic development that's in Kakaako. So we've got the hotels and the resort, but looking at destination management, what that means and how is it changing the face of Waikiki. We've got Kakaako and healthcare and technology beaming and really could be blossoming in Kakaako that they all got together. And then you've got the older community of Makali, Ili area, which is starting to develop. And what do we do with an aging community? But that really is still very vibrant with a lot of past and a lot of cultural past that can be developed close to the university. So it's very diverse and trying to pull that all together. The one thing which is a negative that keeps everybody together is noise, crime and homeless. So we're working on that as well in trying to be again, as we have been doing with energy policy forum or with the Kupuna Caucus is with the homeless, is pulling together the agencies that serve the homeless and being able to connect so that we actually help them get off the street to a better place. You know, you talk about tourism and hospitality in Waikiki, but that leads to a discussion of Maui. Maui, very, very tragic, tragic for the economy also. And of course, you know, you're a state senator that's statewide and your area really goes beyond any one district and certainly it goes to trying to deal with recovery in Maui. Can you tell us about what the ledge is doing or could do to help Maui? You know, I do sit on the Ways and Means Committee and I have to, I really have to applaud my chair, Donna Vendella Cruz because we and the Ways and Means Committee as we did with the pandemic, we've always been asking the questions because we have to balance the budget. We've been asking what's going on. And if it weren't for the questioning of how much are we spending on Lahaina? Because as you know, there was a lot of private monies going into Lahaina as well as county monies. But the state has been at the forefront. We thought the budget amount the governor gave us was $200 million a year over three years. So budgeting $600 million over a three-year period. When we started asking the questions, asking the Hawaii emergency management agency, Haima, also the budget and finance, the finance director and the Department of Human Services because they serve a lot of the needs of the community. Asking them for figures, they say it's a moving figure. But the estimate is about, instead of the $200 million a year over three years, it's the whole $600 million in this fiscal year in one year time. And that's when the red flags went up and we started having these briefings. So we had a briefing last week with all the departments and we brought in the county this week. And over the weekend, all of that information that we raised the means committee has asked of the different departments has been eye-opening and very disturbing. And so we had a briefing and we're gonna have another, we called in the mayor and it was disturbing because I don't think the county even was accounting for what they needed and how much they're actually paying and how much the state has been paying. And so all of that has come to pass. In fact, one of the things that what the council members said is thank you so much Ways and Means Committee for having this hearing because we have not even known all of this until you brought it out. So the county hasn't been, the council hasn't been connected to the mayor, hasn't been connected to the state. So I think it's very disturbing and we are starting to look at all of the costs and trying to get all of that together. Wow, that's a really hard issue. In fact, all the issues you've mentioned are hard issues where we really need to address them. We need to find solutions. We have to make this a state where people stay, they don't leave, make this a state where we're prosperous, we have a quality of life and everybody enjoys that quality of life. These are hard issues and you've been working on them. I know you've talked about them and I know that you're not gonna stop. I know this from the energy policy forum. You're not gonna stop, you're determined and you keep on going and going. So what's going on in this session? There's gotta be some... You know, as I say, Lahaina is front and center and we've got to get a handle on how much we're spending. You know, one of the biggest problems, and I'll share it with you because it came out in our last briefing with the county and the departments, is that we thought it was a 90-10 split with the Federal Emergency Management Administration and FEMA and it is if you're FEMA eligible, what they're finding out, and there's maybe 29 people who are COFA, you know, the Micronesian, they're not FEMA eligible, but everybody else, it's really, they should, we thought they would be FEMA eligible, but we're having to haggle on who's eligible or not. If you were in condos, it wasn't, you weren't eligible and I think that's gotten straightened out, but the numbers weren't coming in and all of the people who are in what they call non-congregate shelter, the sheltering area, is where you're not into some kind of temporary permanent housing. They are living in the Ca'ana Pali hotels. They're called non-congregate because they don't have any facilities for cooking. So we are paying for each household $1,000 a day for the hotel at whatever rate FEMA said they'd pay. The hotels, the food, the wraparound services, each household, each day, we're paying $1,000 a day and the state said, okay, the governor said, okay, we'll pay for that. And so that really is a big, big chunk of money. It's like $1,000 and at that point, we thought 1,000 families of households. That's $1,000,000 a day going out the door. So what we've been pushing the county and the agencies and working with primarily the county and our housing agencies is how you get them out of the hotels and into temporary housing that we're not paying $1,000 a day. Because in temporary housing, you pay for your own expenses. You've got your kitchen, you can cook, and you don't need to have all of the costs that's really mounting up daily on our tap. That's problematic because they may like staying in hotels. They may like having all that around them at the same time. It's the same time. If they refuse and it hasn't happened yet, but the policy that FEMA has is, if they tell you, you must move somewhere else and you say, no, I don't want to go, you've got two chances. And if you refuse two times, then you're FEMA ineligible, which means they come onto our state. So we really are pushing to move them off, out of the hotels and into some kind of temporary. And that was the whole problem with Maui on the short-term rentals, of pulling people back into long-term rentals at least to house these survivors. It's a big problem. It's a big problem and not without its challenges on all sides of the equation. And yes, the state has all these others, homeless workforce development, sea level rise, our cakey people, affordable housing, those are still our responsibility. So yeah, it is major balancing and we are still responsible for all of our residents. Yes, you know, I looked at the list of bills that you've been associated with just this year in this session and I said to myself, we are never ever going to have time to go through all these bills. There were dozens and dozens of them. And I guess that's the Ways and Means Committee. It extends across all that. It extends across all boundaries in the legislature because of the, you know... A thousand bills, if you will. Oh my God. Well, we don't hear all of them because the subject matter committees meets most of them out. But we heard about 30, 40 bills today in Ways and Means Committee. Oh God. Well, you have to have plenty of energy and I know you do have plenty of energy. No pun intended. That's when we started, right, Jake? Yeah, that's when we started. So I was going to ask you my question about what kind of a session is this, you know, because every session has its own personality. It has its own moment in history and it can be distinguished from all other sessions in the past and maybe in the future. Why does this session, how is this session different from other sessions that you have seen? You know, I think every session is different and every session is alike. I think if you're saying what distinguishes this session, I think we came into it anxious about how we're going to deal with Lahaina and the tragedy. We all are very compassionate. You know, we really want to help the survivors and then, you know, it's... But as the bills become greater and greater of what we don't know, there is this real anxiety of the unknown because we do have to balance the budget. We do have lots of needs. All these grants and aids are coming in. The capital improvement projects are coming in. All of the bills are coming in with a mental health, a substance abuse, to Medicaid and needing to help the elderly to education programs. It really is how much can we help Lahaina in terms of getting them on their feet and working and helping them but also taking care of all these other needs. So I think it is... I think it's a period of unknown uncertainty but need to move forward. The thought I've had is that, you know, even without the tragedy of what happened in Maui, there's plenty of work to be done to get us in the right place to preserve our quality of life and our economy and so forth. And then on top of that, you have Maui, which is like a hole in our head. And so now your work and your challenge and your concern doubles and triples because we haven't seen it yet but we know that Maui will affect the state economy. We know that will happen. And I just heard that the tourism numbers are actually down right now and maybe that's a result of people's perception of how Maui affects the hospitality industry across the state. So we have to be very mindful of the economy with this new and profound complication. And that's got to be, you know, as you say, a concern and anxiety in this session. I feel that... I feel and you can agree or disagree that we have a kind of precariousness here. We have to cope with this because if we don't cope with it, the other problems will undermine the quality of our economy in our life. Do you agree? Yes, I agree. I agree wholeheartedly. And when I said this is no different than other sessions as well as it's different from other sessions, is that, you know, I remember going through the pandemic, the same thing in the sense of we were uncertain. We didn't know the economy collapsed because, you know, we couldn't get tourists to come and then we had to mask up. Is that anxiety? And yet we got through that. But it was... Our economy was going up just before the pandemic. Likewise, we were going back up before Lahaina. So, you know, it is the vicissitude of life or whatever these days, but disasters being very much almost normal because of sea level rise, climate change. We are getting more disasters. So we have to, I think, be much more resilient as people as well as, you know, trying to be resilient in terms of our environment so that we have to just expect change and learn to not cope but to be in front of it, to always be expecting change. And, you know, I know that as we talk about change in state government and working with the technology groups, is that... You run the technology committee also, aren't you? Yeah. And that's, you know, if you look at AI and the generative AI and all of these new things that are coming at us, it's not to be afraid of it, to be able to tackle it and understand it and be aware that it's all around us and you can't be doing the same old, same old. As comfortable as it is, it's more discomforting to stay in that space than to say what's out there and how can I be on top of it or in front of it or find different ways on which we can look at what's around us, you know? It's difficult. It really is difficult. But every day is different these days. Yeah. Well, you know, Sharon, I really feel comfortable and confident to have you in the legislature in the state Senate. No, no. I know you well enough to know that you're Akamai about the state, about the prospects for the state, about the economy for the state, about the workforce. You know, you've been around all of that. I'm not going to go through your bio now. Your bio was on the legislative website, but it tells us that you know about these things from long experience, firsthand on the ground experience. And I must say I'm really happy that you're there. I feel better about the state when I think of that. So thank you for serving. Thank you for doing public service. You don't have to do that. You choose to do that. And it is encouraging to see you do what you do. The other the other thing I wanted to ask you, Sharon, is what would you like to leave with our viewers as a message? What should they be thinking about in terms of, you know, the way the ledge interacts with other parts of government, the way the ledge interacts with the community in general. I think your comments about how the ledge and your committee does this kind of oversight thing, you know, to protect our fiscal policy and all that. That's really important. But I'd like to, I'd like to ask you what you think people should see the ledge as, how they should feel about the way things are working. I guess that's difficult to answer because, you know, I think people have different perceptions, though the corruption or, you know, this one, and you attack this person because that person did wrong. Yeah, of course, there's always going to be a normal curve of good guys and bad guys and all the in-betweeners, you know, even more. But I think the one thing I lead the viewers with is that we're all in this together. I'll tell you, my colleagues are all thinking they're doing their best to represent you. We may have different views of how we see that and we, you know, we're all different people, but we all try to hear from you. We ask you to write to us or email us and I get a lot of emails, but they're very different. These everybody, but we do want to know what concerns you and we try our best. But, you know, again, we are working as one person in the Senate. I'm one of 25 in the house. There's 51 others. So we need to get a majority vote when we get anything passed. So we take your comments. We make bills. I've got a lot of bills because it's trying to represent what the interests are and the concerns are for our community. And we go and we try to influence our colleagues to vote for those bills and get them out. But in the end, they go to committees. They go to whether it's the higher education committee or the energy committee. And it really requires all of you to go and testify to say this is important because I have been the chair of the committee and if nobody testifies, hey, nobody cares about this one. Let's just defer. Let's kill this one. We'll move on because we've got, you know, 200 other bills. So it really is important not only to let us know, but don't just depend on one person. It really takes a majority vote to get anything through and it really requires everybody weighing in and not just a few. And sometimes you have the few who weigh in and they just are just one sided. So it really does take everybody to weigh in of what impacts you and what you want and what you don't want. And again, people will vote and say, we don't like that. Well, it's not just that we don't like that. The whole legislative process is hearing through hearing to hearing like six times in different committees that each time you have a chance to change that bill to make it better. So by the time it comes to the end of the process and we vote a conference, we would have heard from many voices and we have to massage it to get the best bill we can to move out or we defer it, we kill it. So it's a long process, but a fast paced process that requires everybody to weigh in if you really are concerned about something. You know, I get people complaining all the time. I say testify. We write the bills, but you got to testify and make it better. So I leave it. It takes a village. And as we always say, the government is us and we are the government. It's a two way street. It's a collaboration of the whole community. And I must say that in our experience together, Sharon, you're a great communicator and a great listener. And I would always feel comfortable expressing my views to you. And I hope you can come back and talk to us about some of the various bills that are still cooking around and that are on that long list of bills and talk about other, you know, extensions of policy discussions around fiscal policy that affect them. Thank you so much. Sharon Moriwaki, senator in the Hawaii State Senate and longtime friend of Think Tech Hawaii. Thank you so much, Sharon. Thank you. It's a pleasure always to be with you, Jay, and with Think Tech. Aloha. Aloha.