Michael Magaoay

Democrat

Age: 55

Job: State representative; electrical engineer/consultant

What is the most important issue facing your district, and what would you do about it?
Saving Turtle Bay for future generations to enjoy and keep the North Shore country. I am presently a working member on the Governor's Turtle Bay Working Group.

What qualifies you to be a state representative?
I represent the many voices, the many communities, and the many thoughts of the North Shore of Oahu. I am a member of the Governor’s Turtle Bay Working Group; I prevented the closing of Kahuku Hospital and Poamoho Camp; I worked to ensure Pupukea-Paumalu and Waimea Valley were saved for future generations. I am committed to our children, our community, our kupuna and our way of life. I care about our future. I have worked diligently to sustain and preserve the unique beauty, the economic health and our way of life on the North Shore. The North Shore is a diverse community where I was born and raised on a sugar plantation. I have delivered on my words in the past and I will continue to deliver as a state representative for the 46th District and proud to have served for eight years.

What is one thing you would do in office to improve the local economy?
Taxes should be cut, especially for the middle-class and below, and tax on food and drugs should be eliminated. Tax cut and incentive should be given to the middle class and below because the pay they receive and the taxes they pay will never be enough to support families with cost of living in paradise keep on going up.

Do you support convening a Constitutional Convention? Please explain.
Convening a Constitutional Convention, since 1978 should convene to look at our existing Constitution is being properly adhered. This convention is for the people of Hawaii to benefit without prejudice for special interest common causes. Let the people of Hawaii decide on the ballot to convene or not.

Do you support Oahu’s planned rail-transit system? Please explain.
Yes, I do support the rail transit system for Oahu. It will take more than decades to build, but the island of Oahu has no other alternative, unless we give up our cars for our personal benefits. The H-3 tunnel took more than 30 years to build, there were a lot of opposition and lawsuits, but the benefits once built is reflected by all residents who use the H-3.

What can the Legislature do to improve Hawaii’s public education?
It will never be enough to spend on public education; every year public education is the biggest entity funded by the Legislature. Funding to public education needs to continue, if we are to make all the necessary repair and maintenance of all the schools that are very old. Until we the state can be accountable to have a schedule periodic maintenance on all schools, whether if the school is on the neighbor island, rural areas or the affluent part of the island. Our children need the facilities to learn and our teachers to teach in an atmosphere conducive to the environment at a cost.

Gil Riviere

Republican

Age: 48

Job: Mortgage broker

Past: President, Keep the North Shore Country; neighborhood board traffic chairman

What is the most important issue facing your district, and what would you do about it?
Our district has vast tracts of fallow agriculture lands. We need to promote viable agriculture with incen-tives for long-term leases, reduced shipping costs to import agricultural supplies, better infrastructure for water delivery and better water quality out of Lake Wilson. There is great demand for fresh, local-ly grown produce, and local farmers believe these lands could be Oahu's breadbasket. Biofuels research and production could generate good paying jobs as well as a renewable, local energy resource. Everyone talks about sustainability and keeping the country, country. Agriculture is the key to this long-term vision.

  What qualifies you to be a state representative?
I have played a large part in the Turtle Bay Resort expansion story, and I was a key leader in securing a traffic alternatives study for the Laniakea bottleneck. With Let’s Surf Coalition, we got the city to follow the law regarding the surf contest permit limitations.

Folks have told me that I have a nice way of explaining the issues, and they note that I stay on task. I have worked hard these past few years building strong community coalitions, and I believe I will be able to build effective relationships to get things done in the House.

  What is one thing you would do in office to improve the local economy?
Our power companies would move much more quickly to renewable and alternative energy generation if they could no longer pass through the high cost of oil to the public. Alternative energy technologies have vastly improved in recent years and we should be doing everything we can to generate more power from appropriate wind, solar, wave, geothermal and biofuel sources. Lowering our staggering utility bills would help people find money for other purchases.

Also overdue is the removal of tax on food and medicine purchases. Doing so will especially help lower-income families increase their buying power.

  Do you support convening a Constitutional Convention? Please explain.
Yes. A Con Con would allow consideration of changes that the Legislature has been unwilling to bring to a public vote. Examples include term limits for representatives and senators, reorganization of our education system and allowing public initiatives and referenda. The last Con Con in 1978 accomplished term limits for governor and lieutenant governor and requires a balanced budget. Most opponents of the Con Con seem to be clinging to the status quo. Hawaii is a tremendous place to live, but there is much that can be done to make it even better.

  Do you support Oahu’s planned rail-transit system? Please explain.
Yes. The same people crying bloody murder about the $3.7 billion price tag won the public relations war and blocked the $2 billion project in 1992. That system would be operational by now, we would have saved billions of dollars, and we would have the backbone of a system that could be expanded to additional areas today.

What will it cost to build this system a decade or two from now when downtown traffic gets as bad as Manhattan? Roads will always fill up with cars. I look forward to an alternative to traffic jams and astronomical parking rates.

  What can the Legislature do to improve Hawaii’s public education?
We must decentralize the system. We have to empower principals. Private schools are run by their principals and they function quite nicely. Let’s bring more authority and less bureaucracy, including the abilities to spend money and hire and fire, down to a level where it will do some good.

The Legislature has no business micromanaging education. The Board of Education is almost a volunteer job and its members have no real authority. There are way too many layers of bureaucracy in our one-of-a-kind state school system. We need to overhaul the entire system and a Con Con might be the answer.