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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 from Elijah Pierick, Republican candidate for state House District 39, which covers Royal Kunia, Village Park, Honouliuli, Hoopili and a portion of Waipahu. His opponent is Democrat Corey Rosenlee.

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 economy and crime. I will keep introducing legislation to reduce regulatory red tape, lower taxes, and promote legislation to help businesses thrive here.

For crime, I will continue to support the police to fund and enable them to police our communities. I will also continue to vote against soft-on-crime bills and vote in favor of tough-on-crime bills.

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 think the reduction in taxes is excellent. However, it’s not enough. Groceries are still expensive, gas prices are still high, rent is still expensive, condo insurance prices are getting ridiculous, so these tax cuts aren’t enough. People can’t afford many necessities in our communities.

I am not concerned about our state budget getting smaller because of the 2024 tax cuts. Our state budget is over $17 billion, which is ridiculous.

With $17 billion as a state budget for a state population of only 1.4 million, our services should be impeccable. We should have the best education, best roads, best public transportation system, least crime of any state in the nation with our ratio of tax dollars to citizens.

Taxes are too high here, the state budget is too big, and our government isn’t providing the services that should be expected based on what we are taxed.

Many other states in America have better service from their governments with less taxes.

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?

I never voted in our state before and only registered to vote in Hawaii before I ran for office in 2022. I raised $24,000 while my opponent raised $30,000.

I don’t believe that you have to pay-to-play in order to win an election. I believe that the people choose who they desired to have to serve them for two years.

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?

I introduced a term limits bill the first session I was elected. I will continue to support limits throughout my time as a public servant.

The Hawaii government also has an unbalanced reward system for elected and appointed officials. If you’re a legislator, you can retire after only 10 years of service. I introduced to bill to repeal that exorbitant retirement benefit from legislators.

There was also a bill to approve our salary. I voted against that bill (our salary). I think legislators should start getting paid once we start solving the problems in our state. Once groceries become cheaper, housing becomes cheaper, there’s less homelessness, electricity is less expensive, there’s less traffic, then legislators should start getting paid.

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

The tax burden in our state is ridiculously high. I do not support everybody being taxed for election campaigning. Only about 30% of the population votes. So that means 70% of the non-voters will be taxed (have money taken out of their income), and given to both Republicans and Democrats to campaign.

In 2022, we had over 400 people run for office in our state, but only about a quarter of those people get elected. That means we would be spending tax dollars on candidates who would never win elections, and for candidates that disagree with the fundamentals of the constituents. In other words, Republicans would have to pay taxes to fund the campaign of a Democrat and vice versa.

I support the donation system where the Hawaii resident may choose to donate in support of the candidate and policies that he or she chooses.

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

Yes, I support a citizens initiative process where citizens put policies and issues on the ballot.

Our state is a part of a constitutional republic, but I support a constitutional democracy as well that permits a citizens initiative process.

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?

Yes, absolutely. Incumbency for too long of a time can sometimes breed complacency and corruption. I introduced a term limit bill in 2023 and voted yes on other term limit bills as well.

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?

To ensure accountability, I frequently send mailers and newsletters to constituents and am active on social media. I attend community meetings to interact with residents and volunteer information. I’ve also been involved in a weekly radio show to provide updates.

Transparency is my nature.

I can support a bill that would ban contributions coming in during session. However, whether somebody gives a campaign contribution the day before session, or promises to give financially a day after session, legislators remember who their donors are during session.

Campaign contributions can influence legislators’ votes, raising ethical concerns. Candidates often receive endorsements (contributions) in exchange for supporting the union. According to the state of Hawaii Ethics Commission, this is not bribery, but an ethical way of getting funded for campaigns? I’m not sure my conscience agrees with this.

All you have to do is check the campaign contributions reports of a legislator, find out which unions endorsed and donated to them, and then those legislators vote in agreement with the testimony given in committee from those unions. This happens before and after session, irrespective of donations received during session.

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?

There are a few things that I would do to make the Legislature more transparent and accessible to the public: every bill gets a hearing, more response time permitted from the public for committee hearings, and decision-making of committee meetings should be made public.

Firstly, every bill should get a hearing. There are about 3,000 bills that are introduced every year. However, only several hundred get a hearing.

Secondly, there’s only about a 48-hour notice to hear bills in committees. I would change this to a three-day notice. This would give the public more time to respond to invitations to give testimony at the capitol.

Thirdly, I would require decision-making conversations for committees to be made public. Right now, the tradition of several committee chairs is to recess after bills have heard testimony.

Subsequently, the legislators go into a private room to discuss how they are going to vote. The public deserves transparency to hear what these representatives are saying on why they are voting the way they’re voting.

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?

With regards to the economy we should diversify our income streams and maximize potential income from tourists.

Concerning diversifying our economy, we should continue to focus our attention on allowing for a film industry to grow here.

Additionally, there’s so many regulatory burdens keeping our agriculture from growing here. I support legislation that decreases red tape on agriculture.

With regards to tourism we can maximize our income from them by switching our tax system in our state from income tax and general excise tax to a sales tax. For example, Florida has a population of over 20 million and their tourism is over $30 million a year. Our state population is 1.4 million with tourism averaging over $10 million a year. We can boost our economy by our residents paying less taxes (1.4 million residents not needing to pay state income tax) and the over 10 million tourists a year paying sales tax.

The less taxes that our residents pay will free them to spend it on their they needs: groceries, gas, electricity and housing.

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?

We can help with the cost-of-living in our state by:

— Modifying the Jones act to allow for housing construction materials to more cheaply come to our state, which would reduce the cost of construction and the overall sale price of a house.

— Getting rid of state income tax, general excise tax, capital gains tax, corporate income tax, and switch to sales tax. The less money the government takes out of people’s paycheck, the more money people have to spend it on what they needed: groceries, gas, electricity and rent.

— Restricting home purchases to locals only. In other words, you must be a resident of Hawaii to own property in Hawaii. This will free up the housing market for locals to buy homes for themselves.