MAHALO FROM REPRESENTATIVE MARK MOSES
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Together we do make a difference! I'm extremely pleased to announce that
we were very successful this legislative session in getting the funding necessary
for Kapolei Middle School and Kapolei High School and many other long needed projects
for our families in the budget, House Bill 2500. Other projects funded include: Kapolei
Library, Kapolei Family Courts and Detention Center, the Kapolei Sports Complex,
Royal Kunia Elementary, Ewa Elementary Administration Building and Library, North
South Road, Kunia Road widening, Kunia Intersection improvements, Farrington Highway
Medial Strip, Fort Weaver Road Landscaping, Fort Weaver Road and Renton Road drainage,
Kalaeloa Truck Weighing Station, Barbers Point Harbor improvements, Pearl Harbor
Wells, and many other projects.
You should be very proud as I am, that my fellow legislators of both parties,
have heard us and realize the importance of the Second City. We were so successful
in persuading the legislature of our needs that funding obtained for State of Hawaii
Capitol Improvements Projects (CIP) and other programs in and serving our area and
our residents total approximately a quarter of a Billion dollars!
But I am especially proud of you for your cooperation and support in gaining the
funding for our Middle and High Schools. As you recall, the first house draft of
the budget removed one half of the funding for the Middle School and the $1,000,000
for planning our High School, and while that early draft did have many good things
in it for us, I spoke out on the House Floor of my reservations and the need to fund
our Middle and High Schools. I was promised we would get full funding next session,
but as you know we want the Middle School ready by August 1999, and I have an agreement
with the Department of Education to open the High School by the year 2000 as long
as funding is obtained.
After I discussed our need for the funding with the Governor and the Senate President
on March 12, 1998 at Washington Place, I requested their support in reinserting the
reduced funding and my new CIP requests, they agreed and told me not to worry that
it would be in the next draft but that I must ensure it stayed there and then passes
through the House/Senate Joint Conference Committee, and finally onto the House Floor
for final passage.
So on April 16, 1998, I sent out my letter asking for your support to lobby the
Senate Ways and Means and House Finance members as I was already doing internally.
Your responses were most helpful. Additionally, I lobbied the Senate Education members
and continued to lobby the House Finance Chair and members.
In the end we got what we needed even though I remained adamantly opposed to raising
our General Excise Tax. The change we made in 1996 has paid off, and better things
are yet to come. Thank you for allowing me to serve you, but please remember your
continuing support is needed. We must remain alert and active to ensure funding for
staff and materials for our schools, libraries and other public projects are provided.
Much has been done, yet much more remains to be done.
Mahalo,
Mark Moses
Representative
42nd House District