Gov. Green live in studio on gun laws, budget, GAP plan — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Thanks there guys. 7:01 right now.
2. 0:01Governor Green joining us live in studio
3. 0:03this morning.
4. 0:04>> Good morning to you Governor.
5. 0:05>> Good morning.
6. 0:05>> I wanted to start off with the Supreme
7. 0:07Court ruling that struck down this gun
8. 0:09law for Hawaii. How will this affect us
9. 0:12here in Hawaii? Will this have any kind
10. 0:14of major effect on gun owners?
11. 0:16>> It shouldn't have a major effect. I do
12. 0:17think that gun owners will be happy
13. 0:19because they can then carry their guns
14. 0:21more um aggressively in public places.
15. 0:24It's not great in my opinion. There will
16. 0:26be more gun violence in general across
17. 0:28the country because of laws like this.
18. 0:30Also, I think this should trigger and it
19. 0:32would be my uh advice to trigger a lot
20. 0:35of extra work on liability. I think
21. 0:36people should have to carry liability uh
22. 0:38insurance if they're going to carry guns
23. 0:40in public places. And it's personal for
24. 0:42me.
25. 0:43As an ER doc, saw a lot of people
26. 0:45tragically wounded by accidental
27. 0:46gunfire. I also lost an uncle and a
28. 0:49cousin uh to self-inflicted gunshot
29. 0:51wounds. So, when you have more guns in
30. 0:53society, you're going to have more of
31. 0:55these incidents, but Supreme Court made
32. 0:57that ruling, so we'll abide by it.
33. 0:58>> You're expected to sign the state budget
34. 1:00tomorrow. And then obviously there's a
35. 1:01lot in there, but can you give us the
36. 1:03main sticking points that Hawaii needs
37. 1:05to know about?
38. 1:06>> Sure. So, uh it's a $10.4 billion budget
39. 1:08from general funds. We got uh to be a
40. 1:11lot leaner and more careful last couple
41. 1:13years, and there's a reason for that.
42. 1:14You know, we did the the gap plan. That
43. 1:16was the tax breaks for middle-class uh
44. 1:18people, working-class people. That took
45. 1:20$5 billion out of our, you know,
46. 1:22expenditures and gave it back to
47. 1:23taxpayers. So, everything's tighter. In
48. 1:25the first year I had to line-item veto a
49. 1:27billion dollars to make sure we balance
50. 1:29the budget. Second year, 500 million.
51. 1:30This year I won't have to. So, in there
52. 1:32is, for example, uh 107 146 million
53. 1:35dollars for the new school over in Maui
54. 1:38that replaces the school that burned
55. 1:39down. Also, all the priorities that we'd
56. 1:41hoped for, the housing priorities, the
57. 1:43Kawai priorities, the health care
58. 1:45priorities, $16 million to cover
59. 1:47people's health care premiums through
60. 1:49the Affordable Care Act. That's the kind
61. 1:51of stuff that's in there. Legislature
62. 1:52did a great job.
63. 1:53>> You know, I think the
64. 1:55top of mind is always affordability. Is
65. 1:57there anything new that we're going to
66. 1:58see this year whether it comes to
67. 2:00lowering state taxes on gas prices cuz
68. 2:02that's so high or even the state income
69. 2:04tax?
70. 2:05>> So, yes. What happened was it was up in
71. 2:08the air whether we could afford to keep
72. 2:09all of the tax breaks that we put in 2
73. 2:11years ago. And they were able to do
74. 2:12that. So, think it's about 98% of the
75. 2:15tax breaks that were proposed from the
76. 2:17beginning stage. So, people up to
77. 2:20it looks like just over $400,000
78. 2:22for families and just over $200,000 for
79. 2:25individuals will continue to see their
80. 2:26taxes their state taxes drop. Then it
81. 2:28will be flat after that.
82. 2:31But basically everyone who is working is
83. 2:33going to see lower and lower taxes at
84. 2:35the state level unless people were
85. 2:37making well over a million dollars and
86. 2:38that's where they saw the 2% increase.
87. 2:40But that was important because
88. 2:42affordability is number one issue and
89. 2:44housing costs are crazy. So, we had to
90. 2:46keep that intact and so I'm really
91. 2:48grateful to the legislature for doing
92. 2:49that. The one thing that they did have
93. 2:51to take a bite out of which was one of
94. 2:53the big
95. 2:54tax credits that was the energy tax
96. 2:55credit for solar.
97. 2:57Now, people who want solar on their
98. 2:59rooftops will qualify with a $40 million
99. 3:02cap total statewide. That will still
100. 3:04cover all the people that are again
101. 3:05working class individuals up to
102. 3:08something like $175,000 and families up
103. 3:10to $350,000.
104. 3:12But the larger tax credits for big
105. 3:14industrial projects will gradually go
106. 3:16away.
107. 3:17Because I wanted to be fair, I preserved
108. 3:19that for 2026. So, if someone started
109. 3:21their project rooftop for a business or
110. 3:23whatever, they will get that tax break.
111. 3:25I did an executive order for that.
112. 3:27>> Deadline for the intent to veto list
113. 3:29that's coming up at the end of the
114. 3:29month. Any particular legislation you're
115. 3:32looking at with this?
116. 3:33>> Not not anything special. I think
117. 3:34there's just going to be six bills on
118. 3:36the potential intent to veto list and
119. 3:39that's probably just because there was a
120. 3:41little bit of a technical challenge in
121. 3:43some of those bills. Again, legislature
122. 3:44did a very good job. They gave me over
123. 3:45250 bills. Every year there's five or 10
124. 3:48that have a little bit of a, you know, a
125. 3:50glitch in them. But there's nothing
126. 3:51controversial, per se, in there. Uh we
127. 3:54really worked hard with our attorney
128. 3:55general's office and the legislature to
129. 3:58get out ahead of that. I've already
130. 3:59signed some of the more, um,
131. 4:01controversial bills, like the bill about
132. 4:03dark money. We signed that. So, we're
133. 4:05establishing ourselves as a state that
134. 4:07won't allow super PACs to come in from
135. 4:09outside and and buy elections. So, I
136. 4:12signed that bill. Of course, I'm signing
137. 4:14all sorts of legislation on housing, and
138. 4:15you'll see, uh, come early July, I'll
139. 4:18start doing uh big um bill signing
140. 4:20ceremonies. I did sign a lot of bills
141. 4:23already, well over 100 on the smaller
142. 4:25stuff, like on jury duty changes and
143. 4:27this and that.
144. 4:28>> I mean, we need to ask you about this
145. 4:29deal with JERA, the liquefied natural
146. 4:31gas. Our state aiming to have clean
147. 4:33energy, and there was an independent
148. 4:36energy analyst who said that you guys
149. 4:38got the math wrong, and it was a
150. 4:39billion-dollar mistake. I wanted to ask
151. 4:42you about what's right about this. It's
152. 4:44It's hard to tell.
153. 4:45>> So, what's right is our policy. And the
154. 4:47policy is, right now, energy is too
155. 4:49expensive. And we get most of our energy
156. 4:51from oil, from the Middle East, from
157. 4:54Libya. It's a bad idea. So, what we want
158. 4:57to do is transition as a bridge to have
159. 4:59some of our power, some of our energy
160. 5:02come from LNG. And the reason this will
161. 5:04work financially, and why that analyst
162. 5:06is not really right, is because I will
163. 5:09get a very large investment from JERA,
164. 5:11and a large investment promised by the
165. 5:13the federal government. The federal
166. 5:14government intends to give a loan of
167. 5:16$1.7 billion
168. 5:17to HECO to work on this. And JERA
169. 5:19intends to come in with an enormous
170. 5:21appropriation to build this out, to
171. 5:23build out a 500-MW plant. They're very
172. 5:25close to an agreement. I hope to hear by
173. 5:27tomorrow that they finalized it, at the
174. 5:29latest next week. But, the reason you do
175. 5:31this is because you use less oil, and
176. 5:34you want to have some diversity of your
177. 5:36energy because you don't have firm
178. 5:38energy, you get the blackouts that we
179. 5:39had, terrible. Also, if you don't have
180. 5:42firm energy as a bridge to a gas energy,
181. 5:44you won't be be to do hydrogen power in
182. 5:46the future.
183. 5:47I am absolutely committed to renewable
184. 5:49energy by 2045, but you have to have
185. 5:52resources, and the federal government
186. 5:54pulled back from the solar tax credits,
187. 5:56the state couldn't afford as much, so I
188. 5:58have to pretty much come up with a a new
189. 6:01playbook, and that's what this bridge
190. 6:03is. But to get there without charging
191. 6:05our own people, I brought in these huge
192. 6:07investors.
193. 6:07>> Okay, before we go State Senator
194. 6:09Michelle Kidani said that she is
195. 6:10stepping down, recently announced.
196. 6:13Number one, your thoughts on her impact
197. 6:14over the years, and also number two,
198. 6:17are your thoughts on on who you might
199. 6:19put into that role as it is now your
200. 6:20responsibility bility to find a
201. 6:23replacement.
202. 6:23>> Yeah, so Michelle is an awesome human
203. 6:26being. I was so grateful to serve with
204. 6:27her, heart of gold, superstar champion
205. 6:30for public education, so she's going to
206. 6:32be missed. I will get three names from
207. 6:34the Democratic Party. They have to live
208. 6:36in that district, and then I'll pick
209. 6:37from those three names. It's not clear
210. 6:39yet to me who will apply. I attended to
211. 6:42want some new blood when I can get it,
212. 6:44and that person then will have to run on
213. 6:46their own in two years.
214. 6:48I'm just so grateful to her for her
215. 6:49service because she, you know, there you
216. 6:52see her behind the committee desk, she
217. 6:54was always fighting for public
218. 6:55education, for housing for teachers. She
219. 6:58was a star. We're losing a couple
220. 6:59people. We're losing Carl Rhodes, who
221. 7:01was one of the quote liberal lions in
222. 7:03the Senate for us. He's the one who
223. 7:06wrote that gun bill. Also, he worked on
224. 7:08the dark money bill along with Jared
225. 7:09Klein Kololi. I mean, there's going to
226. 7:11be some change, but that's what
227. 7:13government's about. Gets in new blood,
228. 7:15new faces, and new ideas.
229. 7:17>> All right, Governor Green, thanks for
230. 7:18joining us this morning.
231. 7:19>> Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.