 Welcome to Ehana Kako. We're here every week on the Think Tech Hawaii broadcast network. I'm Kili Ikeena, president of the Grassroot Institute. My guest today really needs no introduction in Hawaii. In fact, he's known across the nation, thanks to Reason Magazine, which dubbed him the loneliest senator in America. Now, by no means was this man ever lonely. He was always surrounded by people and engaged with the wonderful people of Hawaii. But from 1996 to 2016, he graced the halls of the Hawaii State Senate, and finally he became the sole Republican, excuse me, member in a completely otherwise Democrat Senate. Then in November of 2016, the elections had it that our state Senate would become all one party, and that's a distinction we have, being the only single-party house in the entire nation. We have Sam Slome today to share some of his insights. I personally am grateful to this gentleman, considering him a mentor and a friend, certainly an inspiring figure for many people. And definitely, regardless on which side of the political spectrum you stand on, Sam Slome has been and continues to be the most eloquent voice for a conservative perspective here in the state of Hawaii. Welcome to the program, Sam. Thanks for joining us today. Thank you, Kili. Thank you for having me. Pleasure to be with you again. It's good to see you. But since the election... It is, isn't it? It is good to see me. I look in the mirror every day and I say, gosh, it's good to see you. As you know, we've been called the bluest of blue states. We have a blue house for a blue Senate, a blue governorship. The unions are blue. The monopoly hold over most institutions is blue. Sam, what does that mean for the state of Hawaii now that we no longer have our loneliest senator as the sole Republican? Well, first of all, I was never the loneliest senator. There you go. I knew why I was down at the state Capitol. I knew who I represented, the 48% of the people who had voted for another candidate, another philosophy, and they were not being heard. That was my role and I understood it. And we were very proactive rather than waiting for the Democrats to do things, as you know. But what it means to me is Hawaii is a monopoly state. And you know, I came here right out of high school, right after statehood, 1960, a year after. And this was a very entrepreneurial place. That's right. But since that period of time, we become monopolistic in almost everything that we do, education and taxes and politics and sociology. So my question would be, have we gotten better because we have one party rule? If so, why do we have the schools the same way that we do? Why do we have the roads the same way that we did? Why do we have health care the same way that it was? So Sam. Can't people afford to live here? Yes. So you link the decline in our economic status here in Hawaii, the quality of life and so forth, to our being a one-party state. Absolutely. Is that the same as our being a Democrat state? Well, listen. Would it be any different if we were a one-party Republican state? Probably not, quite frankly, because during territorial days, Hawaii was a one-party Republican state for almost 50 years. But now for more than 60 years, we've been a one-party Democrat state. Jared Acton was always right, you know. You knew him too? Yeah, I was that old. So power corrupts, absolute power corrupts, absolutely. If you don't have people, you know, looking at what you're doing, if you don't have an opposition, loyal opposition, raising issues and things like that, then people are free to do what they want to do. What they've done is tax and spend and take us into debt. So you're not saying we should be Republicans. You're saying there should be a parity, a balance. Look, people in Hawaii vote for the individual, generally, anyway, and, you know, that parallels with most of the country as well. But we should be more involved. When I came here, we were number one in the nation in voter turnout, and very proud of it. And for the last five years, we've been number 50, bottom of the barrel. Now, do you think there's a link between our failure to have voter turnout and being a one-party state? Oh, absolutely. If the Republicans, for example, automatically don't challenge 25, 30 house seats, and you're in one of those districts, why are you going to go? I mean, it's like being in the Soviet Union or somewhere else. So there's no motivation to get out there and vote. Yeah. And a lot of people really believe you can't fight city hall, you can't beat them. And they look at the years and what's happened in things like the rail, the train to nowhere, and they see that there's a lot of correctness. But I'm old school, Kaylee. I want people to get involved. I want them to vote. So, yeah, that would be one thing that we need. There was a time when we had greater parity and much greater competition between the parties. Right. Since then, what has happened, tell me first, to the Democratic Party? What are your observations? Well, you know, we've had a lot of Republicans that switched and became Democrats. They were frustrated as Republicans. They were promised, if you become a Democrat, we'll give you a committee chair, we'll give you more money, we'll give you this, that, we'll pass your bills. They did, and the Democrats kept their word. Meanwhile, Republicans kept shrinking from the issues at hand, and they didn't engage. They weren't the loyal opposition. Many of them who ran for office didn't even run as Republicans. They ran as bipartisan or centrist or something else. And so that damaged the brand of the Republican Party as well. So, as a party member, I take full responsibility. We let a lot of this happen ourselves. We didn't engage, and that's where we didn't go after young people and tell them why it would be good to be a Republican. Since the 2016 elections, we've even had national news media outlets describing Hawaii's Republican Party as dead using that term. They've done post-mortem analysis all over the nation, political journals and so forth. What's your take? What is the condition of the Republican Party here in Hawaii? Very sad, and down financially and membership-wise and everything else. But we have a new leader, Charlene Ostrov. Many of us have a great deal of faith in her, but she's got a long road of hope, but she served in the military for a long period of time, and she has good leadership and qualities. But the truth is, words are great, but actions are better, so we'll see what happens. Now, regardless of how qualified the party leadership is, and you talk about to Colonel Ostrov, who has been a guest here, it boils down ultimately to having candidates who can win the public. What is the stable of candidates for the Republicans right now? I think we've had good candidates in the past. I think we have good candidates now. We certainly could use more and good recruiting, but they have to have, if you're going to have a party, if you're going to have a two-party system, you've got to have a party that is going to be out there in the public domain, is going to be engaging in issues and things like that, and the party hasn't done that. So for me, that's what I'm watching right now. Some of the brightest up-and-coming politicians in the Republican Party have recently switched in the House from being Republicans to being Democrats, or at least one of them is applying to become a Democrat right now. Yeah, I think that's really funny. Beth Kupamoto, you're talking about. Right. And Aaron, Joe Hansenling, before that, what is it going to take for someone to actually run and win and lead as a Republican here in the state of Hawaii, given the imbalance in terms of party? For them to stand for something, for them to be consistent, for them to have a message that resonates? I mean, there's a lot of things that are good issues that we talked about for 20, 25 years, but you can't do that. Times have changed. The electorate has changed. You have to find a way of reaching them and talking about things that are important to them. The millennials certainly have shown us it's all about them. They feel entitled. So you have to talk about those issues. Whether you agree or not, you can disagree, but you've got to have strong arguments for it. Well, what are the issues on which Republicans need to define themselves if they're going to be successful? And clearly, we're not talking about the traditional issues that you've referred to, but issues that will reach the hearts and minds of people. Well, some of the issues still are traditional, the fact that people cannot afford housing in this state. When I got here, they were talking about affordable housing. That's a joke. We have affordable housing. It's $1.2 million for a three-bedroom home. Well, yeah. I know. Unless you're in Kakako, then it's about 10, right? There you go. You know, we've passed all kinds of phony legislation to give breaks to developers if they will build affordable housing for a limited period of time. We've had suggestions from developers and others what they can do and about zoning. It does come down to supply and demand, but there have been ideas out there. We're not willing to do it. And the reason we're not, the politicians are actually happy with the way things are. The developers are actually happy with the way things are. And unless you get the public that says, hey, you guys have been in control for all these years, and we've gotten worse and worse, we're going to make a change. And then they mean it. Nothing's going to happen. You know, your analysis is well-studied, and you're an economist yourself. Yeah. You understand that the artificial scarcity we create with land and so forth keeps those who have the ownership in power. Right. But what I hear you saying is that there are some issues that are tried and true that Republicans need to return to and present solutions on, such as housing and cost of living. Yes. And even medical. Yesterday, there was a phony guerrilla theater sit-in at the state Capitol called it Die-In. We had a couple dozen people there. Yeah, a couple dozen. And of course, it was a top news story yesterday, a slow news day. Reacting to President Trump and the Republican administration's healthcare policy. These are the same people. You can see them at anti-Trump rallies having to do with immigration and having to do with healthcare and having to do with any issue that you pick because they pledged the day after the election when they lost that they were going to resist Trump. So where is the response from, as I say, the Republicans or from others? Because most of the things that they were protesting yesterday were false. They had not happened. They're not going to happen. As you know, the bill that was passed in the House on the American Care Act goes to the Senate. It's not going to be in the same form that it was in the House. So what you're saying is that with regard to something like the American Healthcare Act, Hawaii Republican leadership could have had an instant platform. Could have and should have. And yet they weren't there. No, exactly. But why is that? I mean, this is not like passing a piece of legislation. You'll have to ask them, Kayleigh. This is just making a statement. Yeah. A lot of people do not like controversy. And they do not like it when other people attack them or say, you know, you're racist or you don't like Muslims or you don't like the poor or whatever. They haven't learned how to answer that. They haven't learned how to stand up for those principles that made this country and the state great. We've got one minute left before the break. What is one stereotype, false stereotype, about Republicans you'd like to see dispelled? The party of the rich. If you talk to... I've seen your car, Sam. Yeah. That's right. You've seen my car. You've seen my house. When I was in the Senate, I never took the perks that were due legislators and all that. We are working class people. And yet we've fallen for that. Lots of times when things are said about us, we don't answer it. I think that's a mistake. You don't have to answer everything, but you have to answer those things. We're going to come back right after a break. Promise? Yes. Okay. And then we come back after this break with Sam Slo. I'm going to ask him about the Honolulu Rail. I'm going to ask him about the cost of living and housing and our economic decline in terms of unfunded liabilities that our state is facing. And he'll have answers for you. Don't go away. I'm Kelea Akina with the Grassroots Institute. You're watching Ehana Kako on the Think Tech Hawaii broadcast network. We'll be right back. This guy looks familiar. He calls himself the Ultra Fan, but that doesn't explain all this. He planned this party. He planned the snacks. He even planned to coordinate colored shirts, but he didn't plan to have a good time. Go! Now you wouldn't do this in your own house, so don't do it in your team's house. Know your limits and plan ahead so that everyone can have a good time. Aloha. I'm Kaui Lukas, host of Hawaii is my mainland every Friday at 3 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii. We talk about things of interest to those of us who live here, and my past blogs can be found at kauilukas.com. You're watching Think Tech Hawaii, Hawaii's leading digital media platform for civic engagement, raising public awareness on tech, energy, diversification, and globalism. Great content for Hawaii from Think Tech. Welcome back from the break. You're watching Ehana Kako here every week on the Think Tech Hawaii broadcast network. I'm Kelea Akina. At the Grassroots Institute, we like to say Ehana Kako. That sounds like a venerable old saying in Hawaiian called Apule Kako. Everyone here knows that means let's pray kako together. But we like to say Ehana Kako as well, which is let's work together. Let's work together for a better economy, government, and society, because think of the terrible alternative if we don't work together, and so much stands still because of that. Well, certainly my guest today is someone who has demonstrated a willingness to work together. And I'll tell you something you may not realize. Many of his ideas and his proposals as a countervailing voice Republican in the state Senate ended up reaching the floor because other senators would put their names on it. He never wanted credit for that. But he's been at the forefront of advancing good policy. What I want to do is talk to Senator Sam Slome a bit about what you think is going on with the Hawaii economy. Now you've talked about there being a fiscal crisis, but to me I just see a bunch of frogs in some warm water on their way to the boiling point. Well that's a good analogy and you know that over the years when I was Senate Minority Leader we offered an alternative to the state operating budget and the CIP budget. That's right. So the governor and the state would come out with their budget and your office would produce a counter budget. We would work with them because we wanted to make sure we were technically correct. We came the opposite direction, the state budget has gone like that, our budget went like that. We showed how you can cut things and you have to prioritize. See when you're in the legislature, you're in the legislative body, it's really easy to spend other people's money and then take credit for it. Several times during legislative sessions or committees I said, look if you really believe in this program I want you to line up there against the wall, reach in your own pocket and pull out your own money and support it and of course they wouldn't do that. What you've pointed out in your analysis is not only are we spending money we don't have now, we spent money we didn't have in the past that we have to pay back and we're spending money already from the future before we have it and this results in what we call unfunded liabilities. What is that? Well the unfunded liabilities are basically the state employees retirement system and the state employees health system. So they're over $20 billion, $20 billion and we don't have the money for that. That's money that's not there that should be there to pay our obligation to the state employees. Exactly and if anything happens to the ERS or the EUTF, the first charge is to the taxpayers of the state. It's like general obligation bonds. They come to us first and people don't realize that but yet that is the reality. Now I give credit to Governor Abhakrambi and to Governor Ege. They both have tried to address the problem and put more money into trying to pay that down but you can't do that while you're spending hundreds of millions of dollars more in new projects and new programs or you're spending money for a health exchange that doesn't work, you're spending money for a train to know where, these kinds of things. So they haven't learned how to prioritize them. I'm old school Kaylee, you know I learned from my dad, you don't keep throwing good money after bad. If you see that you get no results, you stop it, you stop the hemorrhaging and we haven't done that. Now you talked about the train to know where, and I don't take it from what I've heard you say that you have anything against this mode of transportation per se but isn't this all about buying something we simply can't afford. Well it's several things, you know, we had the opportunity to use new technology instead we chose the oldest technology there is, steel on steel. State of the art for the 19th century. Yeah, as an economist back in 2005 I looked at the business plan and I told the legislature and I told the proponents this is not going to work, it doesn't add up. We've been arguing for 15 years now, 13 years about the cost of construction but we haven't talked about operating expenses and we haven't talked about maintenance expenses and as you know any project, construction is one thing but the operation, the maintenance go on forever. Now is it true Sam that the original cost estimates that were given to the public which added up to just under three billion dollars didn't even include all of the maintenance and all of the operations and all of the other costs. You are correct, there was three billion, it was 34 miles and included the University of Hawaii. Now we're at 10 billion, 20 miles and we're talking about stopping at Middle Street. So it's kind of like going shopping for a new car and the salesman in this showroom tells you one figure but when you finally get your bill it's exorbitant liar. Well you remember that scene in the car buying where you've made the deal everything is happening he says now I just got to go and get the approval from my manager and he goes behind closed doors I think they drink coffee and eat donuts and then he comes back and he says oh we can't do it at that price. Well that's more honest than heart has been in the rail folks because they have lied to the public, they've lied to the legislature. The mayor, I'm sad to see that the mayor has caught up with President Trump in the poll 32% approval rating, he has out and out lied to the public and he keeps coming back and does it some more but this time this legislative session people particularly in the Senate said no no more so I'm hoping I'm one of those I don't want a special session I don't want them to to mortgage more of my children's future but we'll see what happens there's a tremendous of political it's not transportation you know that it's politics. Sure we've been told that the cost the state needs to bear in order to complete the project is really minimal it's just attacking on a small fraction of a percentage to our GE tax and our GE tax is the tax that keeps on giving so what is so bad about that? Well nothing's bad but it's not true I think those legislators that agree with that and say that they should be held accountable and sign a personal guarantee for any money that goes over that they just haven't performed never been on budget they've never been on schedule they've had problems with the steel they've had problems with the inserts they've had problems with concrete it's just a bad project and you're right I'm not against mass transit or moving people but you have to do it in a way that that is efficient that's cost-effective and works this is now a development and investment project not transportation not even creating union jobs well how does this boondoggle happen I mean we live in a state that has sunshine laws this is a democratic society yes and it's right in front of us it happens television we've got the internet how did the public let this happen? It happens when only 48% of the people vote it happens when you have a one-party state it happens when a lot of people are benefiting from this a lot of people have been paid off PR people and and some contractors and all that as long as they are the recipients they're not going to complain or if Uncle K. Lee works for the state and Auntie Leilani works for the county they're not going to say anything and they don't so there's a malaise amongst the people we're content with the way things are unfortunately yes in other states and localities we've had similar kinds of things but at some point the people grab the pitchforks and the brooms and the torches and they go after not here well in some ways there's no lack of money in Hawaii we're a great place to park offshore dollars in high-end real estate and all that real estate is protected by the mightiest military presence in the world but when it comes to other kinds of dollars to fund projects like a ferry system between the islands or technology or to take startups to the next level and so forth people see projects fall apart like for example the 30 meter telescope what's going on here and how is that affecting our reputation as a destination for capital it's affecting it quite dramatically as you know we have capital flying over flying Hawaii eastbound and westbound shouldn't be we're a state of the United States we have a stable economy and a stable political system we have a lot of resources we have a lot of people that are very capable but when you make a deal when you sign a contract and then you re-nig on it as Hawaii has done in a number of projects the latest being the TMT the 30 meter telescope that sends a message why do business with Hawaii now with a 30 meter telescope I think nine years were spent in the process of garnering every single permit including a permit from the whole office of wine affairs saying it was culturally sensitive yeah and it changed and all of a sudden the mountain became sacred some activists native Hawaiians and others wanted to tear down the existing telescopes that we had and not build this and we competed for that TMT it was a real feather in the cap of Hawaii that we wanted because there were so many countries that wanted now it looks like it's going to go to the Canary Islands and so what does this say that says you can't trust Hawaii you can't do business with it as if we're looking at Beijing in the 70s and 60s when exactly we have to be scared again and you know you said we we have enough money or we don't have a shortage of money we do and particularly for those projects and it's interesting when we had Dan Inouye Dan Inouye was the second economic driver in the state that was an entire industry he was he was and if Dan said he's going to bring something in he did we don't have Dan Inouye we don't have anybody like it well let's switch to this topic right now beyond being a Bernie Sanders state we tend to have a lot of fun in the state attacking President Trump and Republican administration nationally yet it would seem to me that that would be a little counterintuitive to the fact that in with respect to what Dan Inouye did we also need to go to the federal government yes for some cooperation yes and Kay Lee that's going to be the savior of white first of all I still believe everything is cyclical so as bad as things have been and all that you know the pendulum is going to swing back it's just taking the time but what's going to hasten that is the fact that we can't go to the federal government I mean we insult the president every day we have lawsuits upon lawsuits and all of that and then we go and say we want you to continue funding the rail and this not going to happen not going to happen what are your thoughts on our attorney general suing the president of the united states over the general would stick to Hawaiian affairs and doing the things that the state Hawaiian attorney general is supposed to do and we've had a long history of this it makes for good headlines and it makes for possibly future political gains but it doesn't do the state any good now what do you see in the fact that we have four staunchly democrat members of congress and the u.s senate they don't have a seat at the table they're totally out of touch they don't have the the abilities that adana no way or even adana kaka had they knew how to get along they knew how to push when you had to push and and work together and you know we're talking about working together you know when I came here right after statehood everybody worked together and everybody was excited about new developments because we didn't have anything you know we were we were a fast-rising economy but we didn't have anything and so we developed all of these businesses and industries and we're excited about them now we don't want anything we don't want anything from the outside particularly it's not nimby not in my backyard it's we don't want a period we've only got a few moments Sam but earlier I asked you for some advice to give to the republicans what advice would you give to the democrats in order for them to succeed in making hawaii a better place well i think many of them think that they have succeeded but as i say if you look around at the cost of living and people leaving the state and the hardships that we have and homelessness homelessness everywhere then obviously they haven't succeeded i think they've taken the public and the electorate for granted i think they need to exert more leadership rather than political control and dominance and we all need to sit down and talk together because the solutions are out there there's not one problem that we can't solve i'm very optimistic about that governor's race is coming up in 2018 if we pull ourselves out of partisanship what would you tell people to look for in a candidate for governor i would say instead of asking a candidate what high school he graduated from or who he's married to or seeing asking the hard questions what are you going to do about our lack of economic drive and and homelessness and and you know the the medical problems and all of that and get specific answers uh too often they get a political answer you've got to hold politicians feet to the fire that's the first thing because an informed electorate a smart electorate uh will keep all politicians of all parties on their toes very good senator samslome thank you for my pleasure kimi thanks again for talking with you my guest today you just heard him live senator samslome who for 20 years uh held the post of being hawaii's leading voice for conservative thought he continues to speak out and you heard it today on think tecawaii's e hanakako until next time we see each other aloha