8X Sunday, July 29, 2018 | WEST HAWAII TODAY
Richard Creagan - State House 5th District
Why should people vote for
you over the competition?
Compared to my current
opponents I have a tremendous
advantage in that I have been
doing this job for five years and
have been viewed as doing an
excellent job. I have served
on 10 different committees
and have the confidence of the
house leadership who have
appointed me as Vice-Chair
of the Health Committee and
then Chair of Agriculture. My
extensive education in biology,
psychology, medicine and
agriculture and my lifetime
achievement in Peace Corps,
teaching, genetics research at
Yale, medicine as an emergency
physician, as a biotech inventor
and entrepreneur, and as a
30-year Kona and Ka’u resident
and farmer, garner the respect
and support of my fellow
legislators.
What’s your plan of action if
elected to fight for a higher
share of the TAT, or hotel tax?
I voted NO on the rail bill in
special session last summer
because it raised the TAT tax
but gave that increase to the
rail project, with little benefit
to the neighbor islands. Before
and during session I pressured
the house leadership to correct
that mistake and the house
passed a bill to increase the
TAT to Hawaii Island by $12
million. The Senate killed it.
I will continue to pursue
that goal.
What’s the number one issue
facing the state and West
Hawaii right now?
The number one issue facing
the state and West Hawaii right
now is income and wealth
inequality. All other problems,
lack of affordable housing,
homelessness, failing health
care, and inadequate publicschool
funding trace largely
to those disparities and that
needs to be addressed. To
start, we need a living wage.
Besides tourism, what
economic driver should
Hawaii focus on to diversify
and strengthen the economy?
As Chair of Agriculture I
think that this segment of
our economy can be greatly
increased. We need to do
that responsibly and address
and mitigate potential
environmental harm from
invasive species, deforestation,
runoff, from dangerous
pesticides and from social
disruption from exploited farm
workers. We need to address
agriculture theft. There is a
huge potential from hemp
farming. Both candidates
for governor recently
acknowledged that cannabis for
personal use is inevitable and
given our poorly run medical
cannabis program and the
costs of incarcerating minor
offenders we should pursue
the hemp and personal use
goals now.
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