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Editor’s note: For Hawaii’s Nov. 5 General Election, Civil Beat asked candidates to answer some questions about where they stand on various issues and what their priorities will be if elected.

The following came fromÌýGaius Dupio II, Republican candidate for State House District 34, which covers Pearl City, Waiau and Pacific Palisades.ÌýHisÌýopponent is Democrat Gregg Takayama.

Go to Civil Beat’s Election Guide for general information, and check out other candidates on the General Election Ballot.

1. What is the biggest issue facing your district, and what would you do about it?

The biggest issue in Pearl City is the homelessness and crime such as break-ins, car thefts and strangers walking into garages and stealing.

How I plan to fix this problem is to push harsh punishments for repeat offenders such as longer jail sentences and also pushing to reinstate the death penalty.

There is no reason why taxpayers should have to worry about criminals getting a slap on the wrist for terrorizing the innocent.

For the homeless, have them do community service around the parks they inhabit under police supervision. That way parks are clean and safe with police presence.

2. How do you feel about the massive income tax cut just approved by the Legislature and the governor? Do you have any concerns that it will force reductions in state services in the years to come?

I support the tax cuts. I strongly believe that we should remove the income tax completely.

I don’t believe it would have any impact on any state services, seeing as how currently everything that is run by the state already takes too long to get done. Giving them less funds and placing that money into more important jobs like parks and recreation, waste management and garbage collection, where we see our tax dollars working, would be more beneficial.

3. Hawaii continues to struggle with pay-to-play politics and corruption in government. What meaningful reforms do you think would change state government for the better?

Fixing the pay-to-play would be very easy. Anyone caught taking bribes should be immediately fired and imprisoned.

In the Hawaiian constitution it states, neither is it proper to enact laws that enrich the chiefs only, without regard to enriching their subjects.

No leader is above the law. We are public servants. The first duty is to serve the public.

4. Candidates often say they will support reform proposals in the Legislature. And yet major reform proposals don’t pass. Will you back good- government proposals even if it means going against leadership? If you are an incumbent, can you point to an example of a reform that you supported?

If proper laws are pushed I will support them no matter the party.

My job isn’t to make the suits happy. My job is to make the people happy and I understand I can’t make everyone happy, but I can build a bridge where we all can find middle ground and show complete transparency between government and people.

5. Do you support comprehensive public financing of elections for candidates who choose to participate? Why or why not?

I definitely support public financing. We talk about pay-to-play. We want to know who is paying and who is playing.

Transparency has been lost between government and the people and that needs to be re-established.

6. Hawaii is the only Western state without a statewide citizens initiative process. Do you support such a process? Why or why not?

I do support the citizens initiative process. Legislatures take too long to make decisions and at the end of the long process the governor can just shoot it down.

Also with the voter turnout being so low in Hawaii, having initiatives on the ballot for people to vote on will definitely boost voter morale.

7. Thanks to their campaign war chests and name familiarity, incumbents are almost always reelected in Hawaii legislative races. Should there be term limits for state legislators, as there are for the governor’s office and county councils? Why or why not?

I support term limits completely. Current incumbents don’t even campaign, knowing they will automatically win. It is disgusting.

Setting them a limit and having them know their days are numbered would really light a fire under them to get to work.

8. What will you do to ensure accountability at the Legislature? Do you support ideas such as requiring the Sunshine Law to apply to the Legislature or banning campaign contributions during session?

The Sunshine Law is perfect for transparency. I’m currently not taking donations and I’m doing just fine in my campaign so I don’t see why if you are applying for a job people need to give you money for it — all you really need is support from your peers.

If you are caught doing anything like fudging numbers, then you should be removed from the ballot and pay the fines that come with it.

9. How would you make the Legislature more transparent and accessible to the public? Opening conference committees to the public? Stricter disclosure requirements on lobbying and lobbyists? How could the Legislature change its own internal rules to be more open?

I believe live broadcasting of legislative meetings and voting would be fantastic, and open conference committee meetings.

If anything, people can pay $10 to sit in the upper rows at the state Capitol to watch in person how elected leaders speak and vote. Nothing should be behind closed doors when public servants are involved.

10. Many people have talked about diversifying the local economy for many years now, and yet Hawaii is still heavily reliant on tourism. What, if anything, should be done differently about tourism and the economy?

Tourism is the backbone of Hawaii and lawmakers before my time made that happen.

Diversifying the economy would just be making local small business thrive more than outside sources, such as giving small local businesses or local farmers zero business taxes and zero land tax as long as they are people of Hawaii.

In return local goods would be less expensive and can boost the local economy with more residents spending money on local goods.

11. An estimated 60% of Hawaii residents are struggling to get by, a problem that reaches far beyond low-income and into the middle class, which is disappearing. What ideas do you have to help the middle class and working families who are finding it hard to continue to live here?

Figuring out why the price for Hawaii is rising is the first thing on my list with crime going up, homelessness on the rise and goods being expensive.

I don’t understand why we are ranked the second-most expensive place to live, but I would start with making a flat rate property tax that’s very affordable and that rate never goes up no matter what the economy is.

Second would be to have foreign investors to pay the highest taxes for living or opening business here.

Third would to have empty homes that have been on the market for some time bought by the state and turned over to first-time homebuyers with Hawaii birth certificates and to have no company with more than $1 million in assets obtain more than two properties.