What made the 2022 Hawaiʻi legislative session a win for working families?
After multiple years with little progress on policy to help working families survive Hawaiʻi’s highest-in-the-nation cost of living, several factors came together to deliver a banner year in 2022.
Community-driven progress on Hawaiʻi’s affordable housing crisis
The only to address Hawai‘i’s long-standing housing crisis is through a comprehensive, community- and data-driven approach designed not to just build more housing, but to build the housing that Hawaiʻi residents need and can afford.
Put more money in working people’s pockets and reduce housing costs
This legislative session, Hawaiʻi Appleseed is pushing hard to implement a significant minimum wage increase, expand successful tax credits for low-income families, and lay the groundwork for housing policy that will mean no one in Hawaiʻi is left unsheltered because of poverty.
Federal spending reduced overall poverty last year despite the pandemic-recession
But in Hawaiʻi, tens of thousands of residents below the poverty line still struggled to make ends meet.
Lawmakers must do more to invest in Hawaiʻi regenerative agriculture
The success of sustainable agriculture in Hawaiʻi will be contingent on sizable government investments in both small-scale farmers and the agencies that serve them.
Data sovereignty and disaggregation research to be featured at State Capitol
Data disaggregation and data ensure that state spending is adequate and appropriately allocated, and that revenues are assessed and collected fairly.
Now is the time to talk about Pōhakuloa Training Area
The Mauna Kea protests show the growing desire to conserve and protect Hawaiʻi’s natural environment and culture from exploitation and abuse.
Disaggregating data helps replace racist policies with anti-racist ones
One often overlooked way in which racism manifests itself in our policies is through our use of data. Disaggregating data can help end racist policies.