HONOLULU (KHON2) — Governor Josh Green says his ultimate goal is to have this generation of keiki be able to live in Hawaii affordably. That’s why in his “State of the State” address Tuesday, he says he’s constantly tackling the same issues.
Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news
Governor Josh Green’s third State of the State address sounded similar to his previous ones. That was on purpose.
“Because it doesn’t just get fixed in one or two years, but over 4 or a few more years, you will see massive changes for the better,” said Gov. Josh Green.
Green’s speech covered past accomplishments and continuing priorities including cost of living, access to health care and the on-going healthcare worker shortage, public safety, the homeless, and the lack of affordable housing for residents and native Hawaiians…
“We definitely need to continue these problems because the amount of resources it will take to build more housing, to reduce the number of homeless in our communities,” said Rep. Nadine Nakamura, (D) state House Speaker.
“We’ve heard this all before,” said Sen. Brenton Awa, (R) Senate Minority Leader. “And again, I don’t wanna be the guy to criticize something, but we’ve heard the talks every year and they always sound good, but the actions have led to where we are today.”
The Governor’s State of the State Address was about 15 pages long, about 30 minutes in total. But the topic he went off-script for – fireworks. He says that New Year’s explosion in Aliamanu is one of the handful of events that happened during his term that has affected him personally. And that helps shapes his policies to make Hawaii a better and safer place for its people.
“The goal is to never hear about a father taking the lives of his children because he was desperate economically,” said Green. “The goal is to never imagine a mass shooting cuz kids got counselling in school and maybe a psychologist and we had a gun buy back. And maybe in 2026 we will no loss of life because people go to public fireworks shows and they take a pause on buying them.”
Get Hawaii’s latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You
In the short term, Green says he expects lawmakers to pass legislation this session to help ease the state’s skyrocketing home insurance costs as well as fire prevention measures.
#Governor #Josh #Green #delivers #State #State #Address
Leave a Reply