GaryHooser's Blog

https://mailchi.mp/garyhooser/legalization-of-cannabis-automatic-voter-registration-avr-pesticide-drift-increased-fines-living-wage-your-testimony-is-needed-this-week

Wracking my brain as to what I can do to support the good people working for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), during this ongoing government shutdown.  They are working very hard for all of us, literally keeping our economy afloat, but they have not been paid in several weeks.  As someone who frequently flies between the islands, TSA workers are the most visible of all the federal workers impacted by the insanity that envelopes the Whitehouse. 

The Mad King wants his wall, and is determined to let nothing stand in his way toward getting it.  He forgets that he reigns over a democracy with a constitution that shares power between the executive and legislative branches. He forgets that governing requires the juggling of priorities.  And most importantly he forgets that he is not the center of the universe, and that his actions have real impacts on real people.  Either he forgets, or he simply does not care.

To end the government shutdown and return at least a semblance of normality to government operations, Congressional leaders must find a compromise that allows our King to “save face” and look and feel like a winner.  It is clear that he will remain firmly stuck in his position, regardless of the collateral damage to working men and women, until he is provided with an escape route that he can claim as a victory. 

So in a nutshell (pun intended), leadership in Congress must give him a victory without giving him his wall.  

Perhaps a “blue ribbon commission” whose job is to evaluate and make recommendations on the wall, before additional funding is made available?  Perhaps a process that acknowledges the many very real challenges faced by the “immigration issue”, that explores all of the various options and tools available to deal with that issue (including the wall), before additional funds are made available?  Perhaps….you get the picture.  

There are ways to deal with the immigration issue, that may satisfy the President but still fall short of the unnecessary, unrealistic, impractical, ineffective and very expensive wall.  I am hopeful that there are smarter, more creative people than I who can figure this out, and in fact are seeking such a path that allows the proverbial “win win” to occur.

TSA workers should not have to pay the price for the inflated and or bruised ego’s of people who have never experienced what most would consider a “real job”.

These good folks simply want to do their jobs, pay their bills and enjoy life. 

Everyone I know has bills to pay on the 1st and the 15th of the month, and everyone I know would be stressed to the max if their paychecks or retirement checks or their social security stopped coming in the mail.  Our friends and neighbors working at the airport are no different.  Their children need school supplies, their plumbing springs a leak, their cars breakdown and their landlords need rent like the banks need their mortgages paid.  And yes, credit scores decline and take years to resolve or correct.

We as a community need to do something for the good folks that are going to work without pay, and thus allowing all of us to go to work and keep our economy going.  Imagine the price we would all be paying if the airport closed down due to flight safety concerns.

We need to do more than just say “thank you” as we traverse the security line.  I thought about bringing goodies, or treats or asking my wife to bake them a cake – until visions of Marie Antoinette flashed through my mind.  Perhaps the visitor industry can pony up some “staycation” rooms at the various resorts, as a special treat for these special people?  Perhaps those of you who own restaurants could drop by gift certificates so they can take their spouse or special friend out to dinner, even while the bills continue to pile up?  Or a spa treatment, or even lawn care or a car wash…or whatever.  Any meaningful gesture I am sure would be welcome, and would brighten the day for a hard working and unpaid employee.

It goes without saying that the Kauai County Council and the Mayor should declare a “We love our federal workers day” and issue a Resolution and a Proclamation, even though as I write this the gesture rings hollow and without substance.

Bottom line is we need to show our appreciation in some tangible and meaningful way, each of us as individuals and as a community.  What’s happening to the TSA folks and many other federal workers is just wrong, and we as a community must shoulder some responsibility for it.

In response to my previous column “Hawaii’s minimum wage needs to start at $17 and strive to be a living wage” https://bit.ly/2AA8W8D a woman wrote to me saying “I have voted for you in the past but it seems you have moved too far to the left…”.  She then wrote about how she opposed “too much government” and about how increasing the minimum wage would cause “the price of everything to go up”.

I suspect this woman is strong on environmental issues and has supported me over the years, because of my likewise strong positions on environmental protection and land use.  I appreciate that support enormously. But let me ask that she –and others of a similar mindset–be open to thinking about the importance of economic justice as well.

It is interesting that some believe that requiring business to pay a living wage is a radical left wing concept.  Remember, government has been requiring businesses to pay over-time wages, to provide workers compensation insurance and to provide a safe working environment for their employees for decades now. Most of us, I believe, consider these government mandates as part of our modern civil society and not radical concepts at all.

There are many places where the minimum wage is close to that of a living wage, and the sky has not yet fallen on those communities.  In Australia their fast food workers get paid $20 per hour.  Yes, their burgers are probably considered expensive by some, but this has not put the fast food industry out of business.

Here today, according to the state’s own data, “40% of jobs in Hawaii pay below a living wage, and nearly half of all families do not earn enough to pay for their basic needs.” StarAdvertiser December 26, 2018. 

How do we stand by and do nothing while our neighbors struggle in this way?

Yes, if the minimum wage is increased we may have to pay 25 cents more for a burger (which we don’t really need and is bad for our health anyway) and another dollar for the cheap big box clothing (which was probably made in China and which we probably don’t really need either).

But the flip side is that those employees cooking those burgers and selling us those cheap clothes, will now be able to participate in their children’s Parent Teacher Association (PTA), instead of rushing off to their second or third job.  Or maybe they will just go home and read a good book, or throw a ball around with the kids in the yard.  These same employees will now perhaps even be able to go to dinner themselves, or buy their young son or daughter those running shoes they have been asking for.

For the record, I understand also that increasing the minimum wage is only one part of the formula necessary to support working people rising up out of poverty.  The Anne E. Casey Foundation describes what I believe is an all encompassing 3 part solution, they call Earn It, Keep It and Grow It.  Increasing the minimum wage addresses only the “Earn It” component.  The other components involved increased asset building via affordable home ownership, and the strict regulation of “predatory lending” practices such as are now utilized by Pay Day Lenders, Credit Cards and private Student Loan Providers.  

I, for one, don’t think it is a radical idea for those who have more, to be willing to pay more, so that those who have less will at least enjoy the fundamental basics all of us deserve.  I don’t think it is “leftist” to believe that every person who works 40 hours per week should be paid a wage that is sufficient to provide basic shelter, food and health care.  To me, if anything this concept should be central to all of our values and thinking.  

After all – we are all in this together. I am not a pious church-goer, but those who are will recall the Gospel message to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and yes, to give one of our coats to the man who has none. So, believers and nonbelievers, environmental justice warriors and social justice champions should be able to find common ground in this effort to ensure a means of survival–just survival– for all working families in Hawaii. Don’t we call ourselves the aloha state?

Please visit Raise Up Hawaii to read the facts https://bit.ly/2GSIah5  that hopefully will counter the fear and misinformation perpetuated by the big box, fast food and big business interests that seek to keep wages and worker benefits as low as possible. 

Happy New Year, one and all–and let’s work to make it so for ALL.

Every person willing to work 40 hours per week, deserves to earn a wage that is sufficient to provide basic shelter, food and medical care.  This statement should not be debatable.

A friend once told me, “There is no such thing as a bad job, there are only bad wages.”

Hawaii’s Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) estimates the very basic minimum living wage for a single person without children, to be approximately $17 per hour.

Hawaii’s current minimum wage is $10.10 per hour.

The State Legislature will be considering Bills, during the 2019 legislative session to gradually raise Hawaii’s minimum wage until it eventually reaches the living wage threshold (now at $17).  

This bold, forward thinking, people centered public policy making, could in fact actually happen, but only if working people across the state get involved and demand it.

The reality of the legislative process is that very often major decisions are based simply upon which way the wind is blowing.  The facts and circumstances are of course important, but it is the wind of public sentiment that makes things move (or not) at the legislature.

Regular working people, families, singles, young and old people who slave everyday earning substandard wages across Hawaii, hold the power and strength of Hurricante Iniki on this issue.  

If Hawaii’s rank and file workers, can set aside some small amount of time to engage this issue, and use the power they have – then Hawaii’s minimum wage can in fact become a living wage.

Research and historical experience here in Hawaii clearly shows, that the impacts on our economy will only be positive.  And that nothing bad has ever happened when the minimum wage has been raised in the past in Hawaii.  The key component of implementation is small steady increases over time that exceed the annual cost of living, or consumer price index (CPI).

Various business and the Chamber of Commerce will of course tell you that if Hawaii raises its minimum wage gradually over time to achieve a living wage threshold, that the sky will surely fall.

Yes, in some cases prices will rise in order to cover the increased cost incurred by the business.  In other cases the profits of the business may be reduced somewhat.  Yes, consumers may have to pay an additional 25 cents for that elusive gelato, or burger, or plate lunch, or whatever.  But as an island state no business will have to fear consumers driving across the state line where wages might be lower to buy their burger cheaper.

I have owned small businesses myself in the past and know full well the stress and strain that comes with meeting a payroll on the first and the fifteenth.  I understand that operating a small business in a small marketplace is hard and managing costs are a critical component.  However, because every business will be playing by the same rules, the competitive pricing among all business will remain constant. 

We may all pay a small amount more for our fast food and cheap clothing from the big box stores, but we will all also benefit from the additional economic activity as these same dollars are recirculated in our economy.  

More importantly, our entire community will benefit from the fact that all will be able to afford the basics.  Homelessness will be reduced, crime will be reduced, and drug addiction and its related issues will be reduced.  And, the very real public and societal costs we are all paying now to deal (or to not deal) with these issues will likewise be reduced.

Setting the minimum wage floor at an amount sufficient to keep a person dry, fed and healthy is not a new or particularly radical concept. Per a December 2017 report on CNBC, 13 other metropolitan areas in the U.S. now have a minimum wage that is sufficient to be considered a living wage, including: Tucson AZ, Fresno CA, Mesa AZ, Toledo OH, Detroit MI, Buffalo NY, Phoenix AZ, Omaha NE and Columbus Ohio.  Some of these areas have larger populations than Hawaii and some smaller.

The 2019 legislative session begins on January 16th.  The Democratic Party of Hawaii has declared a living wage as its #1 priority.  A majority of the elected members in both the House and the Senate have stated publicly that they support a living wage.

However the reality is that the legislature will not move on this important issue without a loud and broad-based show of support from the general public.  And this support must be voiced now, early to ensure that this important issue gets on the legislative radar, and stays there until passed into law.

Big business lobbyists are already walking the halls and hosting expensive meet and greet, and eat and drink gatherings at fancy restaurants near the capitol.  These lobbyists are at this moment, pressing forward their legislative agenda up close and personal, directly with lawmakers on a daily basis.

While regular working people do not have the luxury of hosting fancy gatherings in downtown Honolulu, we do have people power on our side.  But we must use it, and we must show up and press our case before these same legislators.

Please take a moment today to call and to email the below 6 key legislators.  Then email please your own district Representative and your Senator, TODAY – asking that they support raising the minimum wage to $17 per hour and eventually to a living wage, phased in over time.

While it is too early to quote a bill #, it is not too early to ask for their support.  

Without the involvement of regular working people, the voice of the corporate lobbyists will dominate the conversation.

Regular working people, students and families struggling just to make ends meet, must find the time to get involved and have their voices heard as well.

The message must be loud, clear and persistent (as in professional, courteous and continuous), that a minimum wage must be a living wage.

1.  The 6 most influential legislators for this issue are:

Representative Aaron Johanson, Chair House Labor Committee repjohanson@Capitol.hawaii.gov

Representative Sylvia Luke , Chair House Finance Committee, repluke@Capitol.hawaii.gov

Representative Scott Saiki , Speaker of the House, repsaiki@Capitol.hawaii.gov

Senator Brian Taniguchi, Chair Senator Labor Committee, sentaniguchi@capitol.hawaii.gov

Senator Donovan Dela Cruz, Chair Senate Ways and Means, sendelacruz@capitol.hawaii.gov

Senator Ronald Kouchi, Senate President, senkouchi@capitol.hawaii.gov

2) You can locate your specific legislator and the contact information at http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov

3) AND please also email ALL Senators and ALL Representatives at these two email addresses: sens@capitol.hawaii.gov and reps@capitol.hawaii.gov 

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What do we want?  Justice.

When do we want it?  Now

This is the essence and mantra of progressive values.

Here in Hawaii, we’ve been waiting far too long and there is no good reason why we should have to wait any longer.

Here in Hawaii, where members of the Democratic Party are in total control of both the legislative and the administrative branches at the State and County government levels, it shouldn’t be so hard.

According to the Democratic Party of Hawaii’s 2018 Platform, “We (Democrats) believe that the current minimum wage is a starvation wage and must be increased to a living wage.”  Yet, Hawaii’s Democratically controlled legislature refuses to pass legislation that even attempts to phase in a living wage minimum over time.

According to a 2017 report by the Department of Business and Economic Development and Tourism, the minimum hourly wage to support a single adult (without children) with shelter, food, clothing, and medical care is $17.41 per hour. 

http://files.hawaii.gov/dbedt/annuals/2017/2017-self-sufficiency.pdf

Yet, the minimum wage in Hawaii sits frozen at only $10.10 per hour.

One would hope that those who truly believe in economic justice, would also believe that anyone working 40 hours per week deserves to earn a wage that will provide basic shelter, food, and medical care. 

The truth is there is a price to pay no matter what.  Either employers can pay their workers a living wage or government must fill the gap via food, rent, and medical subsidies.

Incentivizing work by rewarding labor with an honest and living wage is a far better solution than, legalizing tent cities, passing “sit lie bans”, or otherwise criminalizing the poor and disenfranchised.

Regardless of the ideological label one wears, one way or another, we all pay the price for injustice.  The societal costs to abject poverty and homelessness are inescapable and the sooner we confront this fact and implement the appropriate public policies necessary to deal with it, the better – for all of us.

While I currently serve as Vice-Chair of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, I do not write “A Progressive’s Perspective” in that capacity, but simply as a progressive democrat who finds the glacial rate of change in Hawaii unacceptable.  Whether it be economic, environmental, or social justice, the elected office holders in Hawaii continue to take too long to do too little.

The historical norm is that hardworking advocates trek the halls of the capitol, kowtowing to the powerful (mostly) men in suits.  As they huddle earnestly presenting their research and fact-finding, they are reminded by those in the know to be thankful for the policy wins they have gained in the past (however modest they may have been) and warned not to bite the hand that feeds them by being unreasonable, intemperate, or otherwise disrespectful. 

Ever the optimist, I am hopeful that 2019 will be different.

The 2018 Hawaii elections that featured numerous highly qualified progressive candidates, combined with the growing blue wave that is sweeping the continent, is changing the conversation here in Hawaii and akamai political incumbents get it.  

It is a forgone conclusion that the elections of 2020 will feature an even larger number of progressive challengers, with more experience, greater name recognition, and even more funding behind them.  The message will be about the slow pace of justice, that the incremental change offered by incumbents is woefully inadequate, and that “any ole blue won’t do”.

The emergence and growing strength of several local advocacy groups, adds another important element to the formula needed for progressive policy wins during the 2019 legislative session.  The Young Progressives Demanding Action (YPDA), Our Revolution, and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are just three of the many organizations that are actively meeting and recruiting new members among millennials and others who have grown beyond weary of the old guard’s resistance to change.

This new wave of civic activism gave legislators this past session a taste of what’s to come as supporters marched the capitol halls loudly protesting the failure of a Bill allowing graduate students to unionize.  Another Bill allowing “Initiative and Referendum”, and killed in the dead of the night by a single committee chairman, further infuriated and frustrated this group particularly.  You can be sure that during the 2019 session their numbers will be larger.  There is already talk of an “occupy the capitol” effort and many expect Wednesday January 16, opening day of the 2019 legislative session, to be an especially lively one.

I doubt if a few crumbs of incremental change thrown toward core economic, environmental, and social justice issues are going to satisfy anyone this time around.  Activated residents, young and old, are more aware and more empowered than ever before.  

There are many pressing issues on the table, and the days of being told to pick just one and be happy with it, are over.

The passing of a living wage bill that phases hourly rate increases in over time until a living wage threshold is reached, is a reasonable ask, especially when you are asking a legislature dominated by Democrats.  Likewise, meaningful steps toward true criminal justice reform, new dedicated funding for public education, protection of our reefs, the legalization of cannabis, automatic voter registration, and publicly funded elections are all needed now.  

If the political will is there, bold progress can be made on each of these issues in 2019.  Each has been thoroughly vetted in the past (either in Hawaii on in other states), several actually generate new funding, and none are particularly risky or fraught with unknown or unintended consequences. 

The hard but often unspoken truth is that the lack of action by the legislature serves to perpetuate the injustice that is carried on the backs of low income working people, our natural environment, and our island home as a whole.  Good people work hard every day and yet still cannot afford rent.  The poor remain in jail while the rich walk free.  Our reefs are dying before our eyes.  The general public has lost faith in our political system.  Our public education system is crumbling due to our neglect.

Legislators that profess support for liberal and progressive values are firmly in control.   

Will these leaders now act and vote in alignment with the ideals they espouse and the people they represent? 

Those of us leaning furthest left can only hope we don’t fall over waiting.  And to be clear, waiting is something we are no longer good at.

First Published in Civil Beat, December 2018