Here are 5 things we could do at state level to improve quality of our lives

Many of the problems our nation faces today must be solved at the national level, but at least five of them can be approached at the state level as well.

Here in Hawaii, we can do something about health, oil, housing, banks and labor:

» Health: single payer. The state was a leader in health care through its 1974 Prepaid Health Care Act. But tens of thousands of people still have no insurance here, and costs continue to rise. A single-payer alternative is a cheaper option that will cover more people. At least two other states, Vermont and Oregon, are seriously pursuing single-payer options, which can be allowed under the new national health care law. The state can and should initiate its own process to institute a single-payer option for Hawaii.

» Oil: gas cap. One of the major costs of living for the average family in the state is the cost of fuel. A monopolistic market exists here, where large profits drive up costs for everyone. In 2005 the state set up a gas cap to hold down costs. It worked. But oil lobbying killed it, along with complaints that it had been implemented to allow too frequent a shift in gas prices. The complaints could be addressed by timing the shifts more realistically, and the cap, suspended in 2006, should be reinstated.

» Housing: rentals. The only affordable housing program that really worked was one set up by the city some 30 years ago. Medium-high towers were built on city land. Commercial rentals, like small restaurants or stores, operated on the ground floor. The rental apartments were split, with 60 percent affordably priced and the other 40 percent priced closer to market rates. The affordable units were identical to the market units, and the two groups of apartments were mixed throughout the building. This prevented the ghetto effect of cramming exclusively low-income families into massive public housing, which has failed as a policy across the country and across the state.

Instead of wasting money renovating existing state rentals, as it has in the past, the state could create more rentals in new mixed-use buildings, which would help keep down rental costs — and help keep down the cost to the state, because it would include income from market units as well as commercial spaces. Best of all, it would help working families find decent, affordable housing.

» Banks: state bank accounts. The state has traditionally kept large sums of money in big local banks like the Bank of Hawaii or First Hawaiian Bank, both of which are controlled by out-of-state shareholders, and which make large sums of money with these funds. By moving state funds to nonprofit, member-owned, local credit unions, the state could help them and itself. No longer would the state be helping a banking system that has hurt consumers so much.

» Labor: union card checks. Our greatest threat comes from our growing inequality. Despite the famous support for equality in the Declaration of Independence, today our nation ranks 93rd in the world in equality.

Union membership rates help determine our rate of equality — and the well-being of the middle class. A "union card check" policy would help employees join or form unions by allowing them to indicate their preference on a card. In 2009, a provision was added to the 1945 Hawaii Employees Relations Act to allow union card checks, but it has not yet been implemented. It should be, and as broadly as possible.