Primary and secondary education
• Support the existing statewide school system that ensures equalization of opportunity in education, especially for rural Oahu and the neighbor islands.
• Oppose school voucher programs.
• Support implementation of incentives (including teacher housing) to reduce teacher turnover in rural areas.
• Support programs for drug awareness, teen pregnancy prevention, family crisis intervention, etc. in the public schools and the community.
• Support implementation of universal early childhood education that promotes child care and optimal educational nurturing during the child’s first five years through the public education system.
• Support continuation of funding for class size reduction at the elementary and middle/intermediate school level.
• Support adequate funding for the A+ program for elementary-age children.
• Support physical education and art and music education in the public schools.
• Support education about labor unions, worker rights, labor laws, and labor history in the public schools.
• Support legislation to provide for leave from work for private sector employees to attend parent-teacher conferences.
• Support adequate funding for capital improvements based on a priority for permanent buildings. Support additional funding for needed repairs at existing public schools and upgrading of infrastructure to meet classroom needs.
• Support air-conditioning of all public school classrooms. Support alternative energy options to power airconditioning.
• Support secure and safe school environments.
Higher education & Hawaii history
• Support public higher education and ensure the priority of serving students, especially undergraduate instruction and career counseling.
• Continue support for the Center for Labor Education and Research (CLEAR). Provide for sufficient funding and adequate permanent staffing. Support funding of labor-related television programming.
• Support funding for preservation of Hawaii’s film and video historical resources.
Support Ethnic Studies and Oral History research and education.
Civil liberties & social concerns
• Support civil rights and oppose discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, and disability.
• Oppose capital punishment.
• Oppose invasion of privacy. Support legislation providing necessary safeguards and protections (and bans, in certain instances) from unnecessary intrusions on privacy (i.e., lie detector tests, genetic testing, search and seizure, pre-employment and unrelated credit checks, etc.).
• Reaffirm support for personal choice in reproductive decisions.
• Support measures to simplify the voter registration process, including online and same-day registration. Support paper ballots and oppose voting by computer.
• Support protection of “free speech” access at shopping malls, resorts and other similar “quasi-public” facilities for distribution of information.
• Support “death with dignity” to allow individuals under specified circumstances the legal and medical option to end their own lives.
• Oppose “publicly funded elections.”
Maui County Council Chair Gladys C. Baisa, retired ILWU Maui Division Director John Arisumi, Hawaii Lieutenant Governor Shan Tsutsui, and Maui Division Business Agent Stephen West on the opening day of the Hawaii State Legislature, January 15, 2014. The ILWU has given Tsutsui an early endorsement for the office of Lt. Governor for the upcoming election.
Health & social services
• Continue funding for human and social service programs for low-income, disadvantaged, and needy individuals and families. Appropriate adequate funding for mental health and social services resulting from economic dislocation.
• Support the development and adequate funding of programs for child care, elder care, etc. Support a financing mechanism to provide for the long-term care needs of the elderly and disabled. Support programs to educate the general public about longterm care needs and costs.
• Oppose measures using welfare recipients and “work experience” trainees to displace current public or private sector workers or to encourage or subsidize the replacement of existing workers.
• Support the State Med-QUEST programs with adequate funding.
• Support legislation and funding as needed to provide for health insurance coverage and access to health care for all of Hawaii’s people.
• Support funding to ensure the delivery of good health care (including adequate staffing) to rural areas of the State. General support for the statewide hospital system as a safety net of health care services for neighbor island residents.
• Continue support for protection of the elderly against physical, mental and financial abuse and neglect by family members, caregivers, and others.
• Increase Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements to hospitals.
• Support rehabilitation of prison inmates, including re-training to facilitate transition upon release from prison.
Housing
• Support state programs to provide affordable housing to low and moderate income families and individuals through grants and subsidies, including employee housing.
• Support development of affordable rental housing throughout the State.
• Support funding to provide lower cost financing for moderate income home buyers.
Taxation
• Support continuation of centralized taxation authority by the State. Support necessary grant-in-aid to the Counties to provide for needed services in a manner that will allow the Counties some certainty for budgeting purposes.
• Assess the Transient Accommodation Tax (TAT) on the retail price of a hotel room rather than the discounted wholesale price, where applicable. Assess taxes for time-share units at the equivalent amount as the TAT.
• Oppose state taxation of retirement income.
• Exempt local residents from payment of the TAT and the tax on car rentals.
• Reaffirm support for the rail transit project on Oahu by supporting, if necessary, the retention beyond the 12/31/2022 sunset of the .5% general excise tax (GET), which is currently assessed only for the City & County of Honolulu. Oppose the “taking” or “redirecting” of the rail tax by the State. Reduce the State’s administrative fee.