Senate Majority Caucus

The Honolulu Advertiser on April 4, 2010 published the following op-ed by Senator Gabbard on Hawaii’s environmental review system:

by Senator Mike Gabbard
District 19

Smart planning takes patience. We have to get it right first time, because we know how time-consuming and expensive things can be when we get them wrong. Consider how much time and money we’ve spent fighting invasive species, fixing traffic problems, recovering endangered species or reversing climate change. In Hawai’i, with our fragile environment, it’s best to measure twice and cut once.

In 1969, Hawai’i became the first state to adopt an environmental review system. However, in the four decades since, the system has undergone only Band-Aid fixes. It needs a comprehensive overhaul.

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Seagull Schools celebrated the blessing and grand opening for its Stone Family Early Education Center in Ko ‘Olina on April 3rd. This is the seventh Seagull Schools campus and will offer individualized, early childhood instruction for 180 children, ages 2-5 years old.

Senator Mike Gabbard said, “It’s great that Seagull Schools chose Ko ‘Olina for its newest location. With Disney coming in soon, this is definitely the place to be. Jeff Stone and the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation deserve a lot of praise for helping to provide additional early learning opportunities for West Oahu.”

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The Teleworker interviewed Senator Mike Gabbard, District 19, on his views on telework in the following article, “They paved paradise – a commuter’s view“:

Hawaii may conjure images of tranquil relaxation for tourists, but not for commuters. In 2008, Honolulu had the dubious distinction of being named the worst city in the nation for the rush-hour travel time by the National Traffic Scorecard, compiled by INRIX, a Seattle-based provider of real-time, predictive traffic information. Along one section of the H-1 Freeway near the Honolulu International Airport, motorists are stuck in traffic for nearly 40 hours each week.

Mike Gabbard, a Democratic state senator who has been pushing legislation for the past several years to encourage more telework among public and private sector employers, sums up his own experience commuting from his home in Kapolei in West Oahu to the Hawaii State Capitol in Honolulu as “just awful.”

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