Issue Position: COVID-19 Response
Issue Position
What do you think of the state and county response to COVID-19? Is there anything you would have done differently?
I advocated for shutting down of non-essential/non-resident travel to East Maui, Molokai and Lanai early on with letters to the Governor on March 12th, March 17th and on March 21st.I was also able to talk directly with the Governor and General Hara about the inter-island quarantine to express community concerns and give input on the travel/quarantine requirements
During this pandemic, I worked with all levels of government, including our congressional delegation to get the proper information and services to my constituents.
I would have liked to see better coordination between the County (Maui) and the State early on.I feel that communication is better now, not perfect, but better.
COVID has shown our island's reliance on tourism. Do you think we should diversify the economy? How and in what industries?
Yes, we should have diversified before all of this happened, but now our feet are to the fire.We need to look to Agriculture, look to see what can be grown here and use the expertise that is already here to train and educate new farmers and our work force.
The Agriculture community and HTA can then work together on each island plan to have quality tourism.
We also need to look at promoting the high paid trade jobs and promote job training to help our local residents qualify for these jobs.
Please describe the difference between a minimum wage and living wage. Would you support an increase in the minimum wage and why?
A minimum wage is a starting point for entry level workers. Workers should start at that wage and then once they prove themselves, they should be moved up to higher pay.
Living wage is what a worker needs to make their basic needs, electric, mortgage, food.
The problem is that the minimum wage instead being the starting point- it is now considered standard pay. This mentality needs to change.
I support promoting a living wage for those workers that prove themselves. If the state helps with contributing to medical coverage, employers should be able to pay better wages to those workers that are deserving
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