 to politics and land in Hawaii with Dennis Isaki on Think Tech Hawaii. Today we'll be speaking with D. Morikawa, a representative in the state house from the west side of Kauai. The district 16 includes Niihau, Lehua Island, Koloa and Waimea. I thought only birds lived on Lehua Island. Anyway, she's the state house majority floor leader that serves in the following house committees, consumer protection and commerce, corrections, military and veterans, legislative management, and water and land, very important committees. D, thank you for joining us today. Thank you, Dennis. Please tell us a little about yourself and your role in the state legislature. Sure, Dennis. I ran for office in, oh gosh, 12 years ago. I had to resign from my position in the county of Kauai Parks and Recreation Department. It's a tough decision, but back then it was always me wondering how is it that the county gets money for their projects because I would do the CIP budget and always put numbers there, but never understand where the money would come from. So I have that county experience there, but I have served on many committees throughout my career and on the finance committee. I have chaired the human services committee and today I am now the majority floor leader and have been since 2017. And it's a very critical role because it's part of leadership and we get, I get to hear a lot of the issues and, you know, they look to me for input on certain things. And I think for me that is where I fit in very well. Okay, speaking about the majority floor leader, what do you have a say in which bills gets discussed? I can. I mean we pretty much discussed the package that we want to try to do each session. I can get input into just about any committee because as you know in the legislature the speaker of the house is the top, the vice speaker is number two, then the majority floor leader and myself. So we are like the top four in the leadership. Yeah, I mean if I see problems I can go directly to the speaker and we can discuss them. Or if there's something that we want to try to promote, you know, I can do that also. But my main role is to control things on the floor, kind of watch the votes that come in and make sure I get the journal that's done every day correctly done by the end of session. Yeah, thanks. Checking the records, really brought up the bacon for the west side and the rest of the island of Kauai. Do you want to tell us a little bit about some of the CIP projects? Sure. I think as a whole because we have Senate President Kochi, myself and Representative Nakamura and Tokioka. Rep Tokioka has been a very long time representative. So you know we have done very well as far as projects for Kauai is concerned. For Nadine's district, especially when the flood occurred, we were able to, with the help of our finance chair Sylvia Luke at the time, we're able to get the $100 million to help Kauai get through that. And you know, that's huge. But outside of that, we have brought home a lot of money. You know, Kauai High School Gym is being constructed now. The Waimea High School Gym is the project that's been, there's money for that, $27 million. It's just a matter of getting the plan designed and construction finally going. When I first started, I thought what was really huge was the drag strip down in Namanah. My friend, Peter Ishibashi, way back then, I just mentioned to him, how much you think we would need to make that drag strip top-notch? And he said, oh, probably a million dollars. And I put the ask in and I was very surprised that we got it. So we got more funding for that. And today it is where it is, a place that the West Side people really enjoy. But on top of that, the boat harbors have gotten really good funding. They look real good today, Polihale, Kokei, our schools. Waimea Canyon Middle School just got their outdoor, their covered play court, which is also like a gym similar to the other middle schools in Kauai. That was huge. So we look forward to in the future, Ahana Pippin Stadium getting a really nice facility with the ticket booth and restrooms and the food booth all attached to one facility. That should be something very exciting. Yeah. Thanks, our friend Tony Ritchie appreciates that drag strip. And I understand there's a lot of people go to attend that, keep people off the streets also. Some of the other topics I want to discuss, you know, of course, housing and a lot of them is tied into infrastructure, including the sewer. Can the legislature do anything about that? Or is it strictly health-bounding? Yeah, the legislature has helped the water department get a lot of CFP funding for well-improvement and maintenance and all of that. And as long as they have a plan and they come to see us, it's possible that we can help and we have help in that area. But nothing has ever been said about the sewer system. And that's my biggest concern because where I live in Waimea in mid-1980s, when we built our house, we had to hook up to the sewer. And after that, there was nothing talked about future expansion into the sewer system. And so I think, you know, as administrations change, their priorities change, but nobody has ever talked about expanding the sewage. And I think now with the mandates on getting rid of cesspools and people having to put in septic systems is just a real burden on homeowners. I think we really need to seriously sit down and talk about how we're going to be able to fund sewer expansion, meaning more sewage treatment plants, more lines into more housing areas, more development areas. And then we can talk about expanding our housing inventory. Yeah, I think that's very important. We got West Side, Kekaha area, it's all low-lying, you know, the water table's up high. I'm sure that the old cesspools, especially just going into the water system. And even if you got to put a septic system, that's going to cost $35,000 or something at the cost of a house. Yes, and I'm really worried about Kalle Hill and Kaloa, because by right, those two towns need to have their own sewage treatment plants, whether it be colony or whether it be private partner, public partnership, it has to be talked about now. You know, people don't realize that when they try to do any improvement on their home or if they want to sell their homes, they cannot do anything unless they show that they have a septic system in. And like you said, it's very costly. Yeah, I've been saying the same thing. Even Hawaiian homelands, and on the whole, there's no system, and they get a lot of land over there. They got five-year exemptions, you know, they could build a septic, but the exemption is for five years. What will that do after you build a house in the sun? But it's got to put it. So I think, you know, stuff like that. You're right, got to be addressed. It's a big part of the housing. What about other aspects of housing in general? I mean, the state talk about... Yeah, the state has dedicated a lot of funding towards housing projects if you have a project there. Unfortunately for us, especially on the west side, is we have that LA LA project that the county is spearheading, Lima, Ola, and then the Habitat for Humanities. They've been doing a great job in getting home, and those are truly affordable. And then here in Waimea, Habitat will be putting in more homes and apartments. So they're doing really well on my side of the island. That really helps our school population for me, I think, because at one we had such a low population in our high school that though it was pretty sad, but now the kids are starting to come back. And we have great schools here. Yeah, you know, that's what... Habitat for Humanities is doing a great job, as you mentioned. But you know, they need the infrastructure. And that's where we we've helped them. The state has helped them with grants. Yeah, like tax credits and stuff for some developers. But you know, I always say, you know, get to help the whole middle class, working class needs help too. I don't know, they might be addressing 80 percent of the median income or something. And everybody talking about affordable housing, but to me it's just a word, affordable, you know, just calling it affordable, you know, because it's in a so many percent of, you know, median income. It doesn't necessarily make it affordable for everybody. So that housing is a big issue. And coming to the west side, another big problem is the landfill, solid waste. What can you tell us about that? Yeah, you know, even I feel guilty when I throw things in my trash. And I know are not going to be recycled, like, you know, those bottles that we use, not that the metal bottles hydroflask after a while, you have to dump it, you know, it's going to go in the landfill, it's going to stay there forever. There's got to be in today's eight day and age, we have to have some type of something that will incinerate, cleanly incinerate our trash like age power. And I always get the same answer. No, we don't generate enough trash and Kawhi, but I just, I have a hard time believing that there's got to be a way we can get rid of it and still use whatever we power, whatever power we can generate from doing that. It has to be a way, but that has, I just can't see us building another mountain somewhere else. And who knows the consequence of what that pollution is going to do to our groundwater. You know, that's, that's a scary thing to think about. But of course, it's the county again. Right. Yeah, they're behind the eat ball on that on the landfill relocation. They're going to pass over there, look at that mountain and it's getting, getting higher and higher. You know, I don't think we're any closer to getting a new site right now. Even on the Wahoo, they, you know, only recently got the approval, they've been operating at one of them calls for a long time, you know, extending past their permits. Yeah, it's a big issue. So we're not doing a good job of recycling either because I think the bottle, the beverage recycling program is going down. It's not doing what it's supposed to do. I tried to introduce the legislation to make it more of a county issue. So the county would get the benefit of all of that money and to shed out to whoever recycles, but they didn't want it. They thought it was too much of a responsibility. But under the Department of Health right now, there's there's a lot of not so good things that might be happening to it. I've seen the audits and they don't look too good. So people instead of taking it to wherever to redeem, they just throw it in the trash. Yeah, so it's, I mean, but this still got to pay up front. So I mean, you're getting a little bit money, but they just, you know, doesn't have the trash problem. Okay. Yeah, it's, I mean, we got that problem we got to work on. So how do you see the best couple years pandemic issue affecting your body's lives and and your your job in the legislature? Well, yeah, I think the pandemic has taught us a lot about cleanliness and how we need to really be aware that it's not just COVID that we're being affected by. It's a whole bunch of new things that are popping up that our bodies get infected with. And I think, you know, we go back to long ago where they forced vaccinations on us and what have you, but it seemed to have worked. And now that there's more of a freedom of choice, we're finding out that these things will affect us more. But COVID as a whole has taught us that this is serious, we can shut down everything in our lives until we can get a handle on whatever it is that's affecting us at the time. But businesses were hurting. Well, the good thing about it is that now we can start fresh again and figure out how we can make more policy to deal with overcrowding, right? Tourism. I think that's a big problem for us right now is how do we limit capacity or how do we make visitors pay for their impacts on our infrastructure and on our natural resources? But yeah, COVID's taught us a lot. Yeah, I don't think we're out of it yet. A lot of our friends are still getting COVID either to travel or to, you know, just coming into contact with people whether they know it or not. And you know, long ago when we were catching viruses, we didn't never took it seriously until COVID hit. And then when we were dying, then we realized, wow, the word virus can be something serious. Before I just thought, okay, that's a cold virus. I just got a chicken soup, right? But now, you know, we take it a little bit more serious. And some other countries take it more serious than others. I'll be about I'm trying to go to Japan tomorrow and man is it hard. You have to get into this computer thingy on your phone like we used to do with safe travel, but theirs is more complicated and they are strict. So I'm just hoping and praying that everything will be okay when I land tomorrow. So did they just open up travel? No, you still have to get your visa which never needed before. You have to get your pre-test, you have to upload it, you have to have your vaccinations up to date, which means at least three. And then you have to make sure everything's in place when you land there. But there's no quarantine though. If you don't have your papers in place, you may have to quarantine. Yeah, I did travel not to Japan, but during the midst of the pandemic, if we will. And they said, you got to have your test within 72 hours. I did just try to time it. But I arrived at Lihui. I didn't have the test results. They said, you got a quarantine. But just that, you know, like I got it right after, you know, the result negative. They said, sorry, you got to return with it. So you got a quarantine. I go, it's not. So I went home. No, you would think if you can test and test and you're okay, you're okay. Yeah. So I was negative. I went home, I came back with it and they said, okay, now you're okay. Sometimes the rules kind of crazy. Yeah. And on the economy, a lot of businesses, they cannot find workers now. So you got any ideas on that? Why can't the restaurants not opening the hours that they used to because they cannot find workers? Oh, I have a great example of that. Look at Ishihara market. The market in the district that has been like so super busy. And now they're shut down. They close early in the afternoon. They can't find workers. You know, I'm not sure what is going on here because you no longer qualify for unemployment if you're not working. So I'm assuming that like me and my husband, we're baby boomers during the pandemic, we are retired. And we don't need to work, right? And so that was the workforce that left like a huge amount of vacancies in state and county government also. And I don't think that the younger workforce can do those jobs, just step in and do the jobs. That could be one of the reasons. I mean, we raise the minimal wage. So that's not the issue. Employees are paying more than the minimum wage just because they need workers. I think the younger generation just has found a better way to work from home. Yeah, I've heard that some people pay $30 an hour for dishwashers just to get it done. And even at Mark's base, they close and open like five hours now due to lack of so they're trying to get a handle on that that employees, I don't know, you might be right on that generational thing. I know some people haven't come out of high school that, you know, they don't want to rock. I don't know, is it they getting somewhere? Or like I said, their parents have retired. Their parents or their grandparents or something. Yeah, exactly. And so now maybe maybe they're having to take care of their older grandparents, their children, grandchildren. You know, who knows? I see a lot of my people, similar to my age or grandparents, they fly to Oahu to go watch their grandchildren. Yeah, I mean, like you said, you raise the minimum wage, you know, they get, you know, not bad pay, you know. Yeah, what did we start off working for $1 something an hour? $1.80 for me. Yeah. Yeah, you know, I worked, you know, $1.60 after college I made for an engineering company for $4.05 an hour after college. Yeah. And I don't know, you tell the guys working, they won't work for, you know, what is the minimum wage now? And they didn't go up to what 18 bucks? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, that's a tough one to crack. Why, a lot of stores are going into self-service type because they can't get the people to check you out anymore. So you check yourself out now, but that's a new way. Okay. You mentioned the tourism and, you know, how we can put that into the system, you know, to improve the island living. Is that where the tourism more tax or what? Well, we're talking about what's called a green fee where you would charge everyone landing a fee, but you know, of course that didn't work because you want to charge the fee for the use of that specific facility. You don't want to do a flat fee for everybody to pay. It's really not fair. We still have to work out something. That's why parking is being talked about. If you want to go visit Kokei or Haina, you have to pay for that parking, make pre-arrangements, right? And that kind of helps that overcrowding. Kauai has done a really good job because they crack down on vacation rentals. So there are not that many places available and we have limited cars now, although Turo has kind of taken off and there's a lot of business there, which makes another problem with parking at the airport, et cetera. But that's something that now we need to address at next session again. But Maui is suffering because they have not cracked down on vacation rentals. They keep on expanding their hotels and vacations and being what have you. And they're like to the max. They are bad at the airport and you've seen a lot of those Facebook posts about the long lines at the airport, but they can't get a handle on that. So I think Kauai, we can still control it, but we have our issues. Yeah. So yeah, I've seen the pictures of the TSA line on Maui. Yeah, it's pretty bad on Kauai. Like you mentioned the Turo, I think they're parking the cars by Walmart now on the side of Maui. Cracking down because they're parking at the airport. Hey, that's why people don't have to work now because they have jobs like that. Oh yeah. That's one of the things. Yeah, another thing we got, what is it, $600 million to DHHL. So you see, what do you see them going? Yeah, that's huge. I mean, I haven't noticed that they're starting the expansion up in Honapippe, quite in home. So that's big. I can see where that's going to start. And I can see more things happening next year after elections, after the new administration kicks in. I think over there, they can tie it to a sewer, but on the whole side, like I mentioned, there's no sewer plant. So it's a big thing. They got other things, a lot of things with agriculture, yeah. So it's good. It's come a long way. Is that part of a settlement that they've been talking about for a while? Also the Kalima settlement was a different funding. It was kind of a huge settlement that they had to pay out for all of those beneficiaries that were on the list and didn't get the benefit of it. So yeah, that's a huge accomplishment that has never been addressed in many, many years. So I really, not to play politics here, but Sylvia Luke was huge on these decisions. She just wanted to make sure that all of these things got done before she left. I knew she knew she was leaving. So now we can start fresh next session if the economy keeps seats on the way it is. I mean, God, our taxes have come in so high. I don't know why from last year, late last year, transient accommodation taxes rose 400% plus. Corporate taxes went up double digits. So that's why we were able to fund all of these things. I mean, every, I believe, just like every grant and aid application that came in got theirs last session, which is unheard of. So that's one good thing about the economy coming back. So there's what have you. So we have to be able to balance. We want them to come and spend, but we're not comfortable with having to deal with the traffic and all of that stuff. But somehow we need to find that balance. Yeah, great. That's good. Another thing we have is a criminal justice reform that's comes under one of the committees you serve on. I think was that because of the pandemic, they release a lot of. Yeah, we were talking about that before the pandemic, but during the pandemic, it was something that they were trying to push more. So instead of having people stay in and they were getting sick. But when you think about it, there's two sides of that story too. I know I signed on to a bill that thinking early release was a great thing. But when you really think deep about it, perhaps it's not. But I have a Hanai little girl. She's not little anymore, but I took her in because her mom was incarcerated and her dad had passed away. So I understand what her mom went through. And she was able to come out early because she can say that she's living with me now. And she is. She's reunited with her daughter, but I still have to provide her with a place to stay because otherwise she cannot make it out there on her own. And that's why we invested a lot of money to do this for women that left prison to make sure that they would be able to survive outside and still be reunited with their children and prosper. So, you know, that's the whole reason why we wanted to allow these people to come out earlier. Yeah. Well, so it goes beyond just, you know, like opening the door and letting them out then. Yeah, we, this election, were you running unopposed, this election? Yeah, primary, we were all unopposed on Kauai, but we do have opposition in the general. Yeah, we're still not home free, but we continue to work. Like I said, tomorrow I'll be going with a contingent of with the governor. We're going to sign a sister state relationship with Yamaguchi director. So we still have to do the work that we're elected to do. Right. Okay, talking about the election, maybe campaign reform or something. We see one, this was a really dirty campaign and a lot of things hit the fan on bribery scandals and all that. What do you say about those? Like Representative Cullen was my classmate. He and I got elected the same year and it was sad to hear what happened. But you know, I can't imagine what, how a politician goes down that road. I mean, if you're truly doing it for the right reason, you wouldn't have to do that kind of stuff. And for me, I feel like I'm doing this for the people. It's not for myself. I don't need to be here, but I'm here because when I get a CIP funding for a big project in my district, I feel really good. That's what makes me feel good. I don't need anything else. I mean, if people donate to my campaign, thank you. It's probably because you like what I'm doing. And that's part of my job evaluation. But yeah, we at the legislature are trying to develop policy for next year. What do we need to do to make sure that we can watch that these things do not happen, whether it be campaign, spending, type, policy, ethics, policies, but we're waiting for that commission to come down with recommendations at the end of the year. Fundraisers are a big deal. We've already put into law that we cannot have fundraisers during the session. So that's a small beginning. We get criticized, but we are going to try to do something. We don't want this. We want to make sure that we're there for the right reasons and the right reason is to help the people of Hawaii. Yeah, thanks. Unfortunately, we're out of time. It went so fast. Any last words? I think that I said it right after being there for the right reason, and that is to help people of Hawaii. Yeah, thanks. Yeah, thank you. Mahalo to our wonderful guest, D. Morikawa, a representative in the Hawaii State Legislature. Mahalo to the viewers on ThinkTech Hawaii. If you like the ThinkTech free media shows, please help support this nonprofit platform. Thank you so much for watching ThinkTech 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.