Delivered the state of the state address earlier in honolulu. He spoke about efforts to expand Affordable Housing and the states efforts to combat climate change. The governor did not mention the islands recent faults missile alert. This is 45 minutes. [ applause ] [ applause ] speaker psyche, president koichi, and former governors and distinguished justices of the courts, representatives of our congressional delegation, members of the Hawaii State Legislature and elected officials, military leaders, honored guests, family and friends, good morning and aloha. Aloha as a new legislative session open, i want you to know i am ready to work with you on the issues that affect us all. The state of our state is strong. We are a resilient people and the future is bright. As i stand before you today i am struck by the beautiful and often challenging complexity that makes hawaii our home. We really are the most beautiful place on earth we are of many cultures and faiths and we live together in greater harmony than any place in the world. People from all over the planet come here to enjoy our environment, our host culture and their gifts to all of us, the gifts of aloha, tolerance and respect and the celebration of each other and our differences. We often need to be reminded of what makes us so special. We are one of the healthiest states in the nation. People here live longer than anywhere else in the country. We have led the nation in Health Insurance for decades and the current chaos and in the current chaos, we stand firm in caring for each other. We have the lowest Unemployment Rate in the nation. We are strong financially. Our bond rating is the highest its ever been. In our history, making it possible for us to get the most bang for our buck when we borrow money. This saves the state tens of millions of dollars allowing us to make critical investments in our schools, housing and highways. And we have made our voice clear. Hawaii will not stand for the hateful and hurtful policies of the trump white house. [ applause ] we are doing more than any other state to stand up for what is right such as daca and the Paris Climate Accord and to stop what is wrong such as a travel ban and stopping transgender members of the military from defending our flag and our freedoms. [ applause ] and yet so many of us are living paycheck to paycheck, relying heavily on our extended families to make ends meet. Owning a home is out of reach for many families with housing costs, rising faster than wages. Too much of our time is spent in traffic affecting our families and quality of life the growing gap between those doing well and those who are not should concern all of us. We depend too heavily on imported food and fuel, and we must find a just place in our relationship with our own history and with the people of the first nation of hawaii. [ applause ] and the challenges to our island environment such as Global Climate change stare us in the face every single day. I honor my predecessors, former governor, and i have built on what they have done. In doing so i affirm three truths about hawaii and the way we govern. First, i see hawaii as a place and a people that cherish our children, celebrate our diversity and want a better life for the next generation. Second, i see hawaii as a place and a people where we believe in ohana, we respect our kokuna and understand that our ina and our ocean are critical to our quality of life, and finally, i see hawaii as a place and a people where we still believe in the promise of hawaii and the prospect of limitless opportunities. This is the legacy of our host culture, the cultures of our immigrant families and all those who choose to call hawaii home. We have put these values and beliefs into action to chart the course to our collective future. It is one thing to say our children matter. It is quite another thing to do something about it, we have invested more widely in classrooms than in previous years. We promise to call 1,000 of hawaiis hottest classrooms where soaring temperatures have hindered learning for years. I am proud to report with the legislatures support that we exceeded our original goal and were at 1200 classrooms and counting. [ applause ] i also promised to empower our schools so that they can focus on 21stcentury skills and critical learning. In meetings around the state Community Members, teachers, staff and principles express frustration about the top down mandates and one size fits all approach to schools. And so with more than 3,000 parents, teachers and Community Members from around the state, we created a new blueprint for education. This blueprint for change is now in the hands of new d. O. E. Leadership. I also recognize that it is not enough to say to our teachers, we respect how hard you work. Thats why weve given our educators the pay raise that they have long deserved. [ applause ] now lets talk about housing. When we say ohana, we truly mean nobody gets left behind. For those who want to live in hawaii, probably no issue is more challenging than finding a decent, affordable place to live. And probably no issue challenges us as a society more than the daily sight of those now living on our streets and in our parks. We have dedicated more money to Mental Health treatment and Services Including to our Homeless Population we have initiated the largest increase in production of Affordable Housing with thousands of new units coming to market. We are on track to meet our goal in 10,000 new Housing Units by 2020 with at least 40 affordable, and this session, im requesting 100 million to maintain the momentum and produce more Affordable Homes across the state. [ applause ] it has been my firm belief that the state is committed to developing and delivering hawaiian homelands to beneficiaries. In 2016 we provided 24 million in funding to the department of hawaiian homelands. This was the highest level of funding in the departments 95year history and more than double what had been set aside previously. For this part, hawaiian home larpds has been wrapping up developments of turnkey lots. More than 220 lots were awarded in 2017 and that number will more than double in 2018. [ applause ] we have also worked hard with the department to spend on federal funds and identify alternative sources of revenue that can be used to sustain the agency over time. Our Housing First policy focuses on transitional housing as a way to get people into permanent housing. The new kakaaku Family Assessment Center moves families off the streets and into permanent housing in less than 90 days. [ applause ] a special team at Public Housing reduce the vacant turnaround time from 267 days to just seven days. And our landlord summits increase the number of landlords willing to rent to families transitioning out of homelessness. Even in the tragedy that is homelessness, there are significant signs that these policies are starting to make a difference. Homelessness is down 9 statewide. The first decline in eight years. [ applause ] theres more to be done, for sure. We continue our efforts to offer services to those who have so far refused to leave the streets, to move into a better life. We have set aside moneys in this years budget to support more progress on the homelessness front. Our budget request also includes 15 million in additional funding for Housing First initiatives and Outreach Services and maintaining safety in our public places. [ applause ] we also know how Important Community partners have been in tackling this challenge. Take kahaik ivillage. A permanent Housing Project for homeless families launched by local businessmen and philanthropists dwayne carisu. Dwayne [ applause ] dwayne brought together the city, state and nonprofits and businesses to make the village a reality in record time. The first 30 families moved in recently. Dwayne, please stand to be recognized. [ applause ] ohana also means that you should be able to put food on the table and be home with your family to eat it. That means jobs that pay well and commutes that work. Even though tourism is up and unemployment is low, many of our residents are living paycheck to paycheck. One Health Emergency or car repair away from crisis. Some people may have two or three jobs to make ends meet. The challenge is not just about creating jobs. Its about creating quality jobs and the training that go with them. I understand the frustration of many, and thats why i am working to transform our economy to give residents a diversity of Employment Opportunities that pay higher wages and lead to a better quality of life for all. [ applause ] were tackling another quality of life issue and thats traffic, traffic congestion. You know, i have three goals. Get projects done quickly, get them done inexpensively and get them done with minimum impact on the environment and we are making progress from zipper and shoulder lanes and other lanes to safety around our Public Schools and truckonly routes, we are going to where the problems are. Were reducing backups and bottlenecks in west and windward oahu, hilo, kona and other communities across the state, we want commute times to be shorter. [ applause ] we must create a better life for the next generation. It is what we all want. We all dream of our children succeeding here in hawaii. With my three children on the mainland, i know first hand how hard it is to have them an ocean away. My personal goal, the goal to which i have dedicated my service as governor is creating a hawaii that gives all of our children the choice to live and call hawaii home. [ applause ] my grandparents came to hawaii in search of opportunities and it is not acceptable to me that many of our kids are essentially becoming immigrants in other places because we dont have the opportunities here in hawaii. While i am proud while there is more to do, i am proud of what we have accomplished together. We have more Early College programs so High School Students can earn college credits, saving families money and making it easier to graduate with degrees. We expanded campuses and offer more courses at uh west oahu and pallamanui. The creation of hawaiis promise scholarships helps to pay for the cost of attentioning uh Community Colleges. The entrepreneur sandbox in kakaaku brings startups together in one shared space and helps with loans and grants. And we also founded the annual hackathon competition which enlists hundreds of professionals and amateur code writers to develop solutions for the states biggest Information Technology challenges. We must prepare our young people for jobs in this sector and that means supporting syst. T. E. M. Education, focusing on science, technology, engineering and math. That the good news is that it is expanding at all levels. The university of hawaii with the campus increasing its s. T. E. M. Graduates by more than a third in recent years, and the Community Colleges leading the way, tripling their numbers [ applause ] also helping to train students in our schools are partners like dev league, a Computer Programming and coding academy founded by two local software engineers. They are working with the d. O. E. And private foundations. They are teaching High School Students advanced coding and cybersecurity skills. Wed like to recognize dev leagues founders, jason sewell and russell chang. J jason and russell . [ applause ] hes up in the back. To be sure that workers in hawaiis existing industries are arent left behind, weave made available a wide variety of Vocational Training opportunities through the department of labor and industrial relations. These programs match training with current job openings in fields ranging from Computer Science and shipyard welding to banking and food safety and within State Government as we ride the wave of modernization, we remain fully committed to retraining every worker to use the new Computer Systems and technology tools. Technology helps us be more responsive to serve the public. We have always been a state that cares about the elderly. We are making good on that. I am proud that together we were able to pass kukuna Care Education that provide assistance for fulltime family caregivers who also have fulltime jobs. This is a win for hawaiis families. [ applause ] we also work to make sure those who have served our state get to retire with the dignity they were promised and deserve. With the legislatures support we took aggressive steps that will save us 1. 6 billion over the next 20 years. As our kukuna have taught us, paying our bills and honoring our obligations and saving for the future is how we build a Brighter Future and we have done that. One value that has guided this administration is to simply not pass on our debts to our kids and our grandkids. Together, we have made tremendous strides in this task. Were rebuilding our Rainy Day Fund to 310 million. We have gone after tax cheats and collected millions from those who are not paying their fair share. And we are working to modernize our tax Collection System to make it easier and fairer for the people of hawaii. We may ne we made needed changes to improve the system so we can collect the tax revenues we rely on to deliver state services. I believe were on the right track to accomplish this major task. [ applause ] we are also making Great Strides in protecting our ina and ocean resources. To date, we have protected over 40,000 acres of watershed forests on kauai, oahu and molokai and hawaiis islands. We helped [ applause ] we helped preserve turtle bay lands from further development, a joint agreement with the u. S. Navy is helping us reach our Renewable Energy goals and together weve established guidelines to use recycled water on food crops. Working with all of you here in the legislature we were able to provide tax credits for organic farmers which means a healthier people and healthier lands. [ applause ] and you passed and i signed a law to abide by the Paris Climate Accord, the first state in the nation to do so. [ applause ] we understand deeply and fully what the future requires of us. I also fought to give native hawaiians a seat at the table when it comes to management of papa hana, a National Marine monument. The office of Hawaiian Affairs is now cotrustee of the monument. [ applause ] our goal of increasing local Food Production is another golden opportunity for hawaii. We are blessed with four growing seasons and a Land Grant University with a college of tropical agriculture that has a long history of cuttingedge work. With all of these factors, hawaii can and must become the premiere center for new agricultural technologies. We we already have startups going strong here in hawaii. One company that comes to mind is smart yields. They help small and medium farmers to increase their production with Data Analytics and other technology tools. The Company ReceivedInternational Attention when it was chosen to be part of the vaticans very first tech ak accelerator focused on global Food Production. At this time, id like to recognize smart yield ceo Vincent Kimura and his mentor, Hawaii Island farmer richard ha. [ applause ] what we need now is the driver to make local Food Production possible. There is no better way than through our schools. I applaud the new leadership in the d. O. E. s farm to school program. The leadership provided by the Lieutenant Governor sutsui. [ applause ] and the great cooperation of the department of agriculture and the states procurement office. Chan, please stand to be recognized. [ applause ] clean energy is wanot only critical to air and water quality. It is important to our economy and our wallets as we work to reduce our reliance on imported fossil fuels working with the legislature, i was the first governor to sign into law a bill requiring 100 of hawaiis electricity to come from renewable sources by 2045. This demonstrates what we can accomplish when we work together. We want hydro power, sea water air conditioning, solar and wind energy, biomass and the fullest possible use of our waste streams. We celebrate the power plant on the big island as well as the new solar farms on other islands. And this week, we will join nrg energy, Hawaiian Electric and schools in celebrating three utilityscale Solar Projects here on oahu. [ applause ] as a next step, we will grow a Carbon Market here in hawaii. This way, carbon polluters from around the world can invest in restoring hawaiis trees and forests to offset their Carbon Emissions wherever that is. [ applause ] we want the brain power and the imagination of the world to continue to come here. They can help us find our way to 100 Renewable Energy sources for electricity. And in doing so help the world find its way to 100 . Let us take the billions we export for fossil fuels and spend it here and then export the Energy Systems we develop. [ applause ] we are dreaming big and creating the promise of limitless opportunities. Anything less means we are letting down the next generation. Hawaii has so much potential in this new globallyconnected world. We are already viewed as the ideal Research Base and testing ground for innovative, globally significant technologies such as telemedicine, smart cities and autonomous driverless vehicles. Hawaii is a leader in solving the issues of our time. Much of what we do here in hawaii is groundbreaking. Hawaii is home to many talented individuals breaking new ground every single day. Hawaii is full of stories of Business Innovators blazing the trail to create new products and services. The big islands tina fitch turned her startup switch fly into a Global Software platform used by almost every major travel and Hospitality Company in the world. Now shes returned home and started a second company, hobnob, which we hope achieves equal success. Tina, who flew in to be with us this morning. Tina, can you rise to be recognized . [ applause ] in our own State Government, employees are helping us improve the services to the public every day. One example is a team of Young Millennials known as the three amigos. Jodi nakamura, ryan mercado and liam tobin. The wait time for workers comp hearings has been cut in half because of their efforts. This 2017 team of the year from the department of labor and industrial relations launched a project to digitize mountains of paperwork from some 20,000 claims a year. And there are many more dedicated workers just like them all around the state. Jodi, ryan and liam, please stand to be recognized. [ applause ] they are just a sampling of our homegrown talent. We just need to do more to create the supportive environment around them that will launch and sustain their careers here in the islands. I hope you leave today knowing that we have laid important groundwork and that hawaii is on the edge of something exciting. At the beginning of my speech, i said hawaii is a beautiful and complex place. I believe that is our gift to our children and to the future. Imagine a future economy for hawaii that isnt reliant solely on tourism and the military. Imagine a future where local entrepreneurs are inventing useful products and services that are sold across the globe. Imagine that we use our temperate weather and four growing seasons to develop new hightech agricultural tools that increase yields for farmers from hawaii to india. Imagine that we farm our nearshore ocean waters to feed our own communities and the growing Global Demand for seafood. And with these businesses, there is new demand for scientists, technicians and marketing professionals. And what does this mean for the people of hawaii . It means a healthier economy with quality jobs that enable us to improve our schools, take care of our families and provide more Affordable Housing. This future hawaii isnt as far off as it seems. Weve already set things in motion. Weve put stakes in the ground and were making progress. To face the challenges of the future, hawaii must seize the opportunities, embrace change and identify the gamechanging steps that we need to take. Together the possibilities are limitless. I believe the qualities we treasure most about hawaii are what will draw our children back to us. [ applause ] when i ran for governor four years ago, i wanted to take my lifetime of Public Service and fundamentally change the path we were taking. I have committed my life to the people of the state of hawaii. No matter what challenges we face, no matter what frustrations or issues we have with one another, i find my strength and courage in our shared sense of unity. We must work together. Mahalo and aloha. [ applause ] coming up tonight on cspan 3, treasury secretary Stephen Mnuchin testifies before the Senate Banking committee. Then from the World Economic forum, imf director Christine Legarde on the Global Economic outlook. After that, u. S. Mayors hear from deputy Homeland Security secretary elaine duke on disaster preparedness. And later, the u. S. Mayors on how their cities are responding to climate change