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Editor’s note: For Hawaii’s Nov. 5 General Primary 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 from David Tarnas, Democratic candidate for State House District 8, which covers Hawi, Halaula, Waimea, Makahalau, Waikii, Waikoloa, Kawaihae and Mahukona. His opponent is Republican Monique Cobb-Adams Perreira.

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 top priority is to reduce the cost of living for residents. To address this, I support legislation to expand tax relief for working families through income tax reductions and exempting health care services from the State GET. I support increasing affordable housing opportunities by funding infrastructure development for affordable housing projects and providing sustained funding for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to continue to build new housing for Native Hawaiians.

In 2024, I supported legislation authorizing counties to permit more accessory dwelling units (ADUs) on residential lots (SB 3202), to approve residential use of commercial properties (HB 2090) and to phase out non-conforming short-term rental units where they are inappropriate (SB 2919). In 2023, the Legislature funded DHHL $600 million to develop housing for Native Hawaiians. In 2024, we continued our support for DHHL by extending the lapse date of this funding and appropriating $124 million in the Act 279 Special Fund.

In addition to the high cost of housing, another major cost of living is for child care. To address this issue, I have been a steadfast advocate of appropriating additional funds to expand publicly funded early childhood education facilities in my district and throughout the state.

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 advocated for HB 2404 which we passed last session. I am also open to making additional tax reforms in coming legislative sessions. We aren’t done yet with the job of improving our tax code.

I understand the need to carefully monitor the impact of these continuing cuts to income tax. If revenues drop below projected state administrative costs, then certainly the Legislature will be forced to cut government budgets. I am always vigilant of the balanced budget requirement, and I have a track record that demonstrates I am willing to make tough choices about where to cut the state budget if needed. The Legislature will need evaluate the budget and our tax revenues and determine a path forward for a sustainable state budget.

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?

In 2023, I supported HB 724 and was successful in getting drafts of the bill approved by the House and Senate. HB 724 prohibited campaign contributions from state and county contractors. Unfortunately, I was not successful in getting it approved by the House-Senate Conference Committee. The administration’s 2024 legislative proposal was very similar to HB 724, which was carried over to the 2024 session and was already in conference committee. So, neither the Senate nor the House scheduled the 2024 bills for a hearing.

When faced with hundreds of bills being referred to the Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, I had to make tough decisions about what bills to hear and what bills not to hear and I acknowledge these decisions upset some advocates.

Looking forward to the 2025 legislative session, I am open to considering a more narrowly focused bill in the hopes of gaining House and Senate support. This proposed bill would prohibit campaign contributions from individuals who are owners or principal officers of private for-profit companies which have state government contracts. I’m looking at examples from other states for statutory language, successful program implementation and effective enforcement tools we could include in a proposed bill to consider next session.

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?

In my career, I have been a leader in passing significant good-government legislation that has strengthened our state’s public corruption laws, ethics laws, anti-nepotism laws, campaign finance laws and laws to regulate lobbyists interactions with legislators. My work has been praised by Judge Dan Foley (chair of the Commission to Improve Standards of Conduct) — Feb. 23, 2023, JHA testimony and June 23, 2023, governor’s bill signing; Robert Harris (executive director, Hawaii State Ethics Commission, April 28, 2024 Civil Beat interview); and Brian Black (director of the Public First Law Center, formerly the Civil Beat Law Center in the Public Interest, April 24, 2024, Civil Beat interview).

I vote my conscience when casting votes in the Legislature. My experience is that House leadership recommends, but does not demand, that majority members vote a certain way. For controversial bills, the speaker usually tells members to vote their conscience.

Committee chairs must defend their bills during floor debate. So, I had to give many speeches in support of JHA bills during floor sessions to explain the reasons to vote for a bill that had strong and articulate members opposing it. From my experience in the House, we debate the bill on its merits without strong-arm tactics from leadership.

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

Yes, I have demonstrated my support for public financing of elections by leading the House in 2023 to pass a draft of SB 1543, which was referred to conference committee. Unfortunately, the legislative money committees did not fund SB 1543, so the bill did not pass, but was carried over to the 2024 session. Many legislators said we could not afford such a program with the constraints facing our state budget.

In the 2024 session, the Senate approved SB 2381 creating a system of public financing of elections in name only, but without the necessary appropriation or positions to set it up. The Campaign Spending Commission opposed the bill, so I recommended deferring it and focusing instead on SB 1543, which had appropriations and positions. Unfortunately, no funding was provided, so SB 1543 was not revived.

In my opinion, public financing of elections has merit, but there must be sufficient funding and positions to support it. Even though many House members are skeptical, I think we should continue discussing the bill. During the interim before the 2025 session, I am working on a modified bill that incorporates best practices from other states for establishing and paying for their program.

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

I’ve researched how the statewide initiative process has worked in other states and concluded that the decisions by voters on statewide initiatives are usually the result of advertising campaigns rather than careful analysis of the proposed policy reform. As a result, these statewide initiatives can result in policy decisions that reflect the opinions of those who are funding the most effective advertising campaign, rather than what is in the best interests of most citizens in a state.

 I do not support establishing a statewide citizens initiative process because I believe that our system of government as a representative democracy is a better way to reform policies by having elected officials carefully research and evaluate each bill, listen to constituents, have multiple hearings on bills as they go through the legislative amendment process, make well-informed decisions on the bills and then be held accountable for these decisions by constituents.

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 do not support term limits for state legislators. The legislative process benefits by having experienced and knowledgeable committee chairs. If a legislator is effective and responsive to constituent concerns, voters should have the opportunity to reelect them.

This system works for the good of the community. For this reason, I do not support term limits, which would effectively disenfranchise constituents who wish to reelect a long-serving legislator. Term limits decrease the power of legislators and increase the power of unelected individuals like agency officials, legislative staff and lobbyists.

In my opinion, it is through elections that voters can and do limit the terms of their legislators. To that end, the Legislature should continue its efforts to improve the existing elections system by educating voters about the candidates and ballot measures, making it easier and more secure for people to vote, ensuring the integrity of the election process and voting rolls, and enabling voters to track their ballots through the mail-in voting process.

For example, the new digital voter’s guide for the 2024 elections will help to educate citizens so that the existing election process will be even more effective.

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?

As JHA chair, I have led efforts in the state House to ensure accountability of legislators by passing legislation increasing oversight, reporting, transparency and restrictions on campaign contributions.

In 2023, I supported laws that banned fundraisers during session, and banned any contributions or promises of contributions by lobbyists shortly before, during and shortly after session (SB 1493). The House approved HB 726 which prohibits legislators from receiving campaign contributions during legislative session. Unfortunately, the Senate didn’t even give the bill a hearing.

As Robert Harris said in his Civil Beat interview published on April 28, 2024, speaking about the Legislature, “We made significant criminal reforms, giving state and county prosecutors the tools necessary to be able to prosecute public corruption.” Harris also commented, “The House of Representatives, as I noted, did just prohibit nepotism and has adopted a more stringent conflict of interest standard that applies to general state employees. Those efforts should be applauded.”

Due to the short legislative calendar and high volume of bills, and the need for collaboration among legislators to craft legislation and negotiate amendments to bills, I do not think it is practical to require the Legislature to comply with the Sunshine Law.

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 support increased transparency and public access to the legislature. During JHA Committee hearings, I explain the substance of the bill, ensure all testifiers can testify, facilitate thorough discussions after the testimony, carefully explain all amendments to the bill or the reasons to defer a bill. During conference committees, I explained each bill and the details of any proposed amendments.

As the ������Ƶ’s “Sunshine Editorial Board” wrote on March 19, 2023, “Tarnas is one chair who takes time to patiently explain any changes or amendments, including why he is not moving a bill forward.”

I support laws to create stricter disclosure requirements for lobbyists. In the 2023 session, we passed a bill which requires state legislators to include within the legislator’s disclosure of financial interests, the names of certain lobbyists with whom the legislator has a relationship (HB 141). In the 2024 session, we passed bills to strengthen ethics laws relating to lobbying (SB 2217), increase maximum administrative fines allowed for violations of the state ethics code and lobbyists law (HB 1881) and clarify and update the way the State Ethics Commission provides advice and conducts investigations pursuant to the state ethics code and lobbyists law (SB 2216). 

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?

While tourism will continue to be important to our economy, we must develop destination management plans to manage tourism and reduce the negative impacts tourism can have on local communities and special places. I encourage more cottage industries to produce for the tourism market to spread out the economic benefits of tourism more broadly in the community. I also support public funding for improved multi-modal access on roadways, better maintained parks, hiking and biking trails, small boat harbors, launch ramps and mooring buoys — all of which can help attract and sustain more local businesses in the eco-tourism industry.

To further diversify our economy, I support emerging economic sectors such as knowledge-based industries and various ocean technology industries, including marine biotechnology, autonomous remote sensing platforms, ocean-based mariculture, offshore wind power generation and underwater observatories. I believe the astronomy industry can increase the job pipeline for local students, as well as expand the local contracting for services by the astronomical observatories and their headquarters for repair, maintenance and operations.

I also support the legalization of adult use of cannabis, which would support an entirely new legal market with business opportunities in production, processing, analytical laboratory services, distribution and retail.

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?

I will continue to support legislation that reduces the rising cost of living in Hawaii. In 2024, we reduced income tax for all residents with greater cuts for lower income brackets. We exempted dental and health care services paid for by Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE from the state’s General Excise Tax. We continued to incrementally increase the state’s minimum wage. The Legislature also provided funds to reduce the cost of housing for low-income families, facilitate the development of additional affordable housing and associated infrastructure, expand rural health care capacity, expand publicly funded early childhood learning facilities, increase support for kupuna care services and fund adult dental care for Medicaid patients.

Going forward, the Legislature must do more work in all these areas. I support bills providing a GET exemption for all food, medicine and healthcare, changing the tax code to ensure corporations and high income earners pay their fair share of taxes, expanding workforce development programs in high school and community colleges, providing publicly funded preschool statewide, expanding financing programs for affordable housing projects and associated infrastructure and facilitating the redistricting of appropriate land parcels from the agriculture district to the rural district to allow for more affordable housing development.