Progressives to press agenda on more staid Democrats

Members of the progressive wing of the Hawaii Democratic Party will make a case this year for dramatic initiatives such as a $17 hourly minimum wage, legalization of recreational marijuana and single-payer health care, but it’s unclear whether their stodgier colleagues in the state Legislature will embrace those causes.

With the Republican Party a nonfactor in local policy making, the political jockeying to watch when the Legislature opens Wednesday may be the maneuvering between the left-leaning lawmakers and the more establishment Democrats who actually wield power at the state Capitol.

In a mass email sent out Dec. 28, state party Chairwoman Kealii Lopez listed raising the minimum wage, increasing funding for public education and legalizing recreational marijuana as top priorities, issues that make up the “top tier” of a larger agenda that was unanimously approved by the party’s State Central Committee.

But when asked about the prospects for the Democrats’ initiatives this year, Senate President Ron Kouchi immediately mentioned money. Kouchi is keeping a wary eye on the apparent slowing of the U.S. economy, the shutdown of the federal government, and the drubbing U.S. financial markets took in December.

Increasing public education funding is probably the least controversial of the Democratic Party issues, but Kouchi cautioned that “we need to look at the overall financial picture.”

If the state legalizes and taxes recreational marijuana or more aggressively collects state taxes from vacation rentals that aren’t paying today, then those would be new revenue sources and “that would help us be able to get a better commitment to education, to homelessness, things of that nature,” said Kouchi (D, Kauai-Niihau).

Randy Perreira, executive director of the Hawaii Government Employees Association, said leadership of the Democratic Party has passed to a group that is more leftist or liberal, so the party is ramping up its push for enactment of a progressive agenda this year.

“Whether or not the legislators acknowledge that remains to be seen, because I think still within the Democratic Party there are rifts and certainly clear differences of opinion,” said Perreira, who leads the largest public worker union in the state.

There were relatively few hotly contested races in last year’s election — in fact, much of the state House leadership was unopposed — and voter turnout was low as usual, which could be read by incumbents as a signal there is no pressing need to rock the body politic with controversial new progressive proposals.

In fact, Perreira said lawmakers’ approval of physician-assisted suicide last year was “the first time in many years state lawmakers adopted something off the so-called progressive agenda.”

That stay-the-course approach to lawmaking does not sit well with progressives such as former state Sen. Gary Hooser, who is now vice chairman of the state Democratic Party. Hooser is closely identified with the more liberal wing of the party.

“I think the days of the party looking the other way when legislators ignore the agenda of the party, I think those days are over,” said Hooser.

The party regularly polls Democratic state lawmakers before elections to try to confirm that they support the various planks in the party platform, but traditionally only a small percentage of lawmakers actually respond to the poll, Hooser said.

Last year, the party pressed lawmakers to reply to the survey and got enough responses to document there are majorities in the House and Senate that support an increase in the state minimum wage. Hooser also noted that some key lawmakers such as House Speaker Scott Saiki have endorsed and sponsored bills in the past to increase the minimum wage.

While Perreira said the party is pushing some “controversial social ideas” such as legalization of marijuana, Hooser said that proposal on its own “should be an easy one.”

The state needs the tax revenue from legal marijuana, other states have already legalized it for recreational use, and “in many ways cannabis is de facto legal anyway,” Hooser said.

“The election cycle for 2020 has already started, and so on these particular issues, it’s an opportunity for the incumbents to demonstrate their values and their support of Democratic Party values now,” Hooser said. “If they’re saying, ‘Next year,’ in an election year I think it’s going to be more challenging for everybody.”

Other priorities

But House and Senate lawmakers seem focused on other matters.

House leaders have been discussing ways to increase the disclosure requirements for political action committees after last year’s aggressive campaigning by a super PAC controlled by the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters.

That super PAC, called Be Change Now, abruptly pumped more than $1 million into advertising in the races for lieutenant governor and governor, an intimidating sum in a media market as small as Hawaii. The super PAC supported Josh Green, who won the race for lieutenant governor, and Colleen Hanabusa, who lost the governor’s race to Gov. David Ige.

In the Senate, Kouchi said he agrees with Ige’s decision to commit more than $2 billion to construction projects next year because the time for government to spend money on construction is when the economy slows, contractors are hungry for work and bid prices tend to drop.

“If, in fact, that slowdown to the economy is coming, then we’re poised to get a better bang for our capital dollar,” Kouchi said. “More importantly, if the slowdown comes, that investment in infrastructure puts people back to work.”

Kouchi said his own top priority is the Farm-to-School initiative to put locally grown produce in public school meals and then expand into prisons and hospitals to boost the state’s agricultural industry.

As for the state Democratic Party’s list of priorities, Kouchi said incremental increases in the state minimum wage “may be appropriate.”

The HGEA’s Perreira said the union also will be supporting a minimum wage increase or establishment of a “living wage” for Hawaii, noting HGEA represents nearly 2,000 government employees who make less than $15 an hour.

But on the issue of marijuana, Kouchi cited polling data showing that only 41 percent of the public supports legalization of recreational marijuana. Still, it will “be in the conversation,” he said.