What made the 2022 Hawaiʻi legislative session a win for working families?
Our 2021 “Policy in Perspective” report called the 2021 legislative session a “missed opportunity.” Legislators mostly balked at taking action to correct the unfair and inequitable components of Hawaiʻi’s tax system; they failed to provide badly-needed economic relief to working families through either an improved Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) or minimum wage increase; and they neglected to make any significant investment in affordable housing.
Just one year later, the legislature passed an EITC expansion, increased the minimum wage up to $18 by 2028 and invested almost $1 billion into various affordable housing strategies. These meaningful policy changes will bring hundreds of thousands of Hawaiʻi workers closer to a living wage, keep tens of thousands of households out of poverty and make meaningful progress in addressing the urgent crisis of affordable housing and houselessness.
What changed during that one year period? What can advocates for economic justice learn from the shift in legislative action? Our 2022 “Policy in Perspective” report reflects on these questions and provides four primary takeaways.
Sufficient revenue helps policymakers turn long-discussed ideas into action. The more than $6 billion in federal pandemic relief funds allocated to the state and counties bolstered Hawaiʻi’s economy, giving state legislators the ability to invest the large sums of money necessary to patch Hawaiʻi’s badly-frayed social safety net and help working families deal with our high cost of living. Rather than wait and hope for federal dollars, Hawaiʻi can transform its state and county tax codes to provide a steady revenue stream while alleviating costs to working families and stimulating the economy.
Going forward, advocats need to make the connection between everyday problems—from cost of living issues to health policy and everything in between—and a lack of government funding via tax revenue crystal clear at every opportunity. A fair tax system is essential to addressing Hawaiʻi’s continuing crises in affordable housing, healthcare, income inequality, food insecurity, climate change and more.
By delivering financial relief to struggling working families while asking the wealthy and corporations to contribute sufficiently, we can ensure that the opportunities from which they benefited are expanded and maintained for future generations. This can also be a way to rectify ongoing injustices caused by colonialism and to increase racial and social equity, creating a more balanced, just and healthy society.
Political pressure makes a difference. 2022 was a major election year in which every state legislator was up for reelection due to redistricting. With Hawaiʻi’s soaring cost of living top of mind with a pandemic-weary population, politicians in every legislative district want to be able to say they delivered economic relief to a growing number of struggling voters.
It’s important to pay attention to the whole political chessboard, including electoral politics. Even for nonprofits that avoid involvement in electoral politics, being aware of the political landscape and the pressures that elections are putting on key lawmakers is essential to understanding the motivations behind decisions during the legislative session. Having a good working understanding of these motivations is, in turn, critical to planning effective campaign strategy and knowing when and how to most effectively push for change.
Sustained coalition efforts are necessary. Because it often takes years to get transformational policy fixes through the legislature, coalitions of organizations and people can help sustain the effort. Collaboration with other advocates can help focus messaging around an issue and drive cohesive campaign efforts efficiently, transferring community energy into legislative success. Seeking unconventional allies and broadening the range of support for an issue can make coalitions more effective.
Building capacity for long-haul campaigns is critical. Factor in that we will likely be fighting for several years until enough pieces fall into place for a successful push across the finish line. Cultivate relationships with as many organizations and advocates as you can, and do not overlook unlikely or unexpected collaborations that can expand the breadth of your supporters.
Centering impacted communities is critical to success. Building meaningful relationships with everyday working families, bringing them into the policy process, and centering their voice enables us to cut through the distraction and disinformation presented by opponents of change. Data can show why change is needed and why policies make sense, but it’s the people that these policies impact that can show lawmakers—viscerally—why these policy changes matter, and how urgently they are needed. In the end, it’s people power that drives policy change forward, so putting people first is essential.
Put people first from the beginning stages of the campaign all the way through to the end and allocate serious resources behind the cultivation of people power. Our community cannot craft solutions that work for everyone if those most adversely impacted by the current system are excluded from decision-making process. When people who are impacted by Hawaiʻi’s policies are on your side and you center their voices, lawmakers will listen much more carefully than they will to dry statistics and data alone.
While much work remains to be done to right Hawaiʻi’s upside down tax code, provide dignity for workers and their families, and solve the pressing affordable housing crisis, Hawaiʻi can be proud of the progress made during the 2022 legislative session.
Read more about the historic session, the wins for working families, and our recommendations for future legislative sessions by downloading the report.
