Name on ballot:

Luke A. Evslin

Running for:

State House – District 16

Political party:

Democrat

Campaign website:

www.lukeevslin.com

Current occupation:

legislator and small business owner

Age:

39

Previous job history:

Kaua’i County Councilmember and small business owner.

Previous elected office, if any:

Kaua’i County Council

Please describe your qualifications to represent the people in your district.

Co-owner of a small and struggling composites manufacturing business for 17 years, managing finance and human resources;

Master’s degree in public administration with a certificate in public policy from USC;

Lifelong Kaua’i resident;

Served four years on the Kaua’i County Council as the Chair of the Finance and Economic Development Committee;

Served two years in the Hawai’i State House of Representatives;

Served one year as Housing Committee Chair in the State House;

Most importantly, I am a young father struggling to afford housing on Kaua’i.

What is the most-pressing issue facing residents in your district and how would you address the problem?

Reducing the cost of housing is our most pressing need– as it impacts every other issue we face. We can’t ensure economic diversification if young people can’t afford to take the risk of starting a business. We can’t increase educational outcomes if we have a teacher shortage because teachers can’t afford a house. We can’t increase opportunities for farming as long as properties are more profitable growing houses than crops. We can’t significantly reduce carbon emissions as long as we keep building most of our new homes far from job centers, forcing our residents into lengthy commutes.

We need to continually break down barriers to housing development within and around our town cores, and we need to remove red tape and fees to ensure that families can easily add on a unit for their children or aging parents or for rental income. We also need to support the counties in utilizing property taxes to further disincentive vacant home ownership and vacation rentals while incentivizing affordable rentals. We need dedicated funding sources for infrastructure– such as an increase in the conveyance tax for non-owner occupied high-end homes– to support higher-density development within each island’s primary urban center.

Lastly, we need to develop a low-interest loan program to help families build affordable rental housing on their properties.

What would you propose to be done at the state level to help residents cope with Hawaii’s high cost of living?

Housing and transportation costs are by far the biggest drivers of Hawai’i’s high cost of living. Housing is addressed in the questions above and below, so please refer to my answers there. For the cost of transportation, it’s important to recognize that gas is a global commodity—and so locally, there isn’t much we can do to bring down the price. But there are long-term alternatives to reduce our reliance on gas.

First, we need to build our communities so that people have the option of living close to where they work so we don’t continue to force residents into lengthy and costly commutes. For Kaua’i, that primarily means focusing on reducing the imbalance between jobs and housing in Lihu’e (nearly 60% of the jobs and just 25% of the island’s housing) by building more housing in Lihu’e (see above). But it also means helping reduce zoning and other barriers to create jobs in communities other than Lihu’e, so people can find work close to their homes.

We also need to ramp up support for electric vehicle charging infrastructure through direct subsidies and by requiring that a percentage of newly constructed parking stalls have conduit and a receptacle for a future charging station (which is cheap to do during new construction and 5x the price to retrofit afterward). While on the County Council, I co-introduced (along with Councilmember Kuali’i) and passed county legislation to require new construction to be EV-ready and introduced (and failed to pass) statewide legislation that would have closed a loophole that allows many property owners out of complying with state and county EV-charging requirements. I am committed to doing what I can to ensure a widespread and equitable public charging network across Hawai’i.

Because KIUC has so much renewable power on the grid, unlike the other islands, the price of electricity here has remained relatively buffered by high oil prices. Many electric vehicles are much cheaper to own (maintenance costs on EVs are a fraction of gasoline-powered cars) and operate than their corresponding fossil fuel counterparts (as charging a car with electricity is much cheaper than filling it with gas). And, here on Kaua’i, you can be assured that our electricity will remain forever buffered from fluctuations in the oil market. This means that EVs are a critical component of reducing transportation costs.

What can the state Legislature do to help Hawaii home and condo owners with rising property insurance rates?

There is not much we can do in the short term to reduce rates, as they are based on global turmoil in the insurance market—primarily driven by the increasing prevalence of natural disasters worldwide and aging condos across the country. But there is a lot that we can do to ensure that homeowners have access to coverage.

I strongly support the passage of a bill similar to HB2686 (which failed to pass in the Legislature this year). This bill would have capitalized and enabled the Hawai’i Property Insurance Association (HPIA) and the Hawai’i hurricane relief fund (HHRF) to insure properties that no other insurer would underwrite. In addition, I believe that HPIA and HHRF should be expanded to include commercial insurance. These measures will ensure that nobody is left without coverage as insurers reduce their risk and pull out of the Hawai’i market.

In the longer term, we need to work to mitigate risks from natural disasters and ensure that condo associations are staying current on building maintenance and retrofits. By taking these measures, we can help support stabilization in the insurance market by reducing risk.

It’s important to note that some of the chaos in the insurance market is one facet of climate change and the increasing prevalence of natural disasters worldwide. This is one reason it’s vital that Hawai’i and the rest of the world rapidly transition away from fossil fuels.

Can Hawaii’s tourism-dependent economy be diversified, and, if so, what can state government do to support the effort?

We cannot achieve economic diversification if the next generation can’t afford to live here. You can’t risk starting a business if you can’t afford rent. A primary barrier for many businesses right now is attracting and retaining employees, which stems at least partially from the high cost of housing. The most important thing we can do to diversify Hawai’i’s economy right now is to reduce the cost of housing (through the mechanisms described elsewhere in this survey).

Kauai is already over-capacity for tourists. And as the visitor experience declines, per-capita visitor spending goes down. So, while the total number of visitors continues to grow, total visitor spending has remained stagnant for years. We need to increase the cost of visiting Hawai’i through fees (such as parking fees for state and county parks) and taxes (such as the TAT tax and county property taxes on vacation rentals and hotels) to regain balance in our communities and help fund alternative industries. Funds generated through increased taxes and visitor fees should go towards housing, infrastructure, direct subsidies for manufacturing and agriculture, and managing visitors.

What would you propose to help increase affordable housing in Hawaii?

Most of my work has focused on reducing the cost of housing.

While on the Kaua’i County Council, I co-introduced and passed legislation to: 

Eliminate all fees for affordable additional rental units (up to $20k in savings for some households);

Provide Kaua’i homeowners with $20K in grant funding for septic systems, with priority going to those who are adding additional dwelling units;

Prohibit community covenants from restricting against additional units and long-term rentals; 

Reduce the building code requirements for tiny houses;

Eliminate minimum lot size restrictions for multi-family homes; 

Allocate 2% of Real Property Tax revenue annually towards affordable housing;

Create a tiered tax structure to allow us to increase tax rates on high-value vacant houses and vacation rentals to fund affordable housing and incentivize those units to convert to long-term rentals;

While in the State Legislature, I introduced and passed legislation to:

Allow residential uses in all commercial areas and reduce barriers to converting commercial buildings to residential use;

Allow multigenerational housing statewide, reduce impact fees for small units, prohibit covenants from restricting against ADUs and long term rentals, and increase the speed to subdivide a lot;

Reduce the regulatory barriers for those who perform work on their own properties. 

In general terms, I believe that solving the housing crisis requires an all-of-the-above approach utilizing all five of the strategies outlined below:

1) We need to build more homes in and around our existing towns. Every study on affordability includes increasing supply as a prerequisite for affordability. This is the first decade since Statehood where home construction on Kauai has fallen far below our population growth— and it’s this lack of homes that is the driver of our exploding costs.

2) We need to put more money towards affordable housing.

3) We need to continually strive to reduce barriers for families to add on additional units for their parents, children, or long-term renters. 

4)  We need to build the infrastructure for more townhouses and condos in Lihu’e.

5) We need to support the counties in disincentivizing vacant homes and vacation rentals through increased property taxes. An effective tax rate for these homes can incentivize their conversion to resident housing and help fund the construction of affordable housing.

What can state government do to better support and improve public education in Hawaii?

We are facing a dire teacher and substitute teacher shortage, which is driven by high housing costs and a lack of available housing. This leads to understaffed schools and overburdened teachers (many of whom have to work second and third jobs). The most important thing that the State can do to help support public education is to ensure that teachers can afford to live in Hawai’i. To achieve this, we need to bring down the market price of housing (as outlined in other answers throughout this survey), we need a housing voucher program for teachers to help subsidize the cost of housing, and we need to pay teachers more.

Should the state continue to pursue building a replacement for Aloha Stadium in Halawa? Please explain.

As I represent Kaua’i, I don’t have strong feelings about whether the stadium was rebuilt in Halawa or moved to UH. However, if the stadium is rebuilt in Halawa, it will present a tremendous opportunity to build lots of housing centered around a vibrant stadium district easily accessible by rail.

Should members of the state Legislature have term limits like Honolulu’s mayor and City Council members?

I oppose term limits for the Legislature for three primary reasons:

1) I have long been a proponent of term limits for the county council. The council is a good entryway into government. It’s possible to be an effective council member after just a few months on the job and it’s important to ensure that council spots are regularly opening up for newcomers. However, the state government is more complex, and it takes years to learn to be an effective legislator. I don’t think it’s in the public’s interest to be removing our most seasoned and knowledgeable legislators. And with twenty first-year members of the House, there is already ample turnover. 

2) Because every island has term limits for its respective county council, there is a regular outflow of popular and experienced individuals who could be viable candidates against incumbent state legislators. Therefore, voters should retain the ability to choose the best candidate.

3) Lastly, when a legislator knows they will lose their job after just eight years, they’re forced to line up another job. This puts more pressure on the legislator to lobbyist revolving door, leading legislators to be more beholden to lobbyists and the industries or organizations they represent.

What reforms, if any, would you propose to make local government more transparent to the public?

I believe that transparency and accessibility are part of the responsibility of serving in elected office. I have the honor of being paid by the public to represent my community in the Legislature, and it’s my responsibility to inform the public as well as I can. I will always accept every constituent meeting and strive to respond to all constituent emails and questions on social media. I strive to communicate complex bills through social media, mailers, and town halls. As a resident of a small community, I see and interact with my community every day outside of the legislative session. It’s not uncommon to get stopped in a grocery store or the surf lineup and asked to explain a vote, a particular policy, or my thoughts on a topic.

On a broader level, the House recently increased transparency through significant changes to our internal rules. House rules now include a right for the public to provide oral testimony at any public hearing, either in person or remotely, there is a requirement to make testimony available to the public by the noticed time of the meeting, and the rules require that chairs sufficiently explain any decisions made in committee. In conference committee, which is open to the public, the House practice is for the Chair to explain the bill and the proposed amendments before voting on it. And there are strict disclosure requirements for lobbyists.

While I understand the financial struggles facing local newspapers around the country, one of the major hurdles that we face locally is that there is so little media coverage of Kaua’i relevant policy at either a State or a County level. While outside the scope of my work in the Legislature, I also think that we need more explanatory journalism that shifts away from the “he said/she said” approach to legislative coverage (which can help perpetuate misinformation) and instead strives to explain and break down policy and its potential impacts.

What will be your top priority if elected?

My top priority is to reduce the cost of housing and to do it in a way that builds stronger communities, reduces our reliance on cars, and preserves agricultural land.

Is there anything more that you would like voters to know about you?

Serving Kaua’i these last six years has been the greatest honor of my life and I am incredibly grateful to the voters for giving me this opportunity. The problems we face are graver than ever, and none have simple solutions, but I am confident that we have the tools to reduce the cost of housing while transitioning to a zero-carbon economy– and to do it all while improving our quality of life and strengthening our communities. Please check out my website at www.lukeevslin.com to see a full list of policies that I’ve worked on and a list of proposed policies for the future. Please don’t hesitate to reach out via email (Luke@lukeevslin.com) or phone (635-6623) if you have any questions for me.