I authored and passed bills to prevent harassment by impersonation, float $35 million in special purpose revenue bonds for Sopogy, Inc. to build a solar farm on Oahu, create a $1 million beach restoration fund that requires a $1 to $1 match from the private sector, require tow truck companies to drop a vehicle and not place a fine if the owner arrives at the scene, and create an identity theft council to protect personal information within the government.
I really enjoyed working on the important agricultural lands (IAL) bill, which includes incentives for farmers, requires the Department of Agriculture and Department of Land and Natural Resources to identify public lands for designation as IAL, and an incentive for landowners to designate 85% of their lands to IAL and have 15% reclassified to the rural, urban, or conservation district through a declaratory order approved by the Land Use Commission. I will have more details on the bills I worked on later. I will be posting some of my floor speeches and written remarks that I stated for final reading bills.
On December 28, 2007, my request to resign as Vice Speaker of the House as a result of my DUI incident was approved by Speaker Calvin K.Y. Say. It was humbling to step down from a House leadership position. Nonetheless, I was honored to have had that opportunity at such a young age. Prior to becoming Vice Speaker, I also had the awesome opportunity of serving as chairman of the House Economic Development & Business Concerns Committee. In politics, one can rise quickly and fall quickly. As hard as it was on me, this tough incident lead me to become Vice Chairman of the House Water, Land, Ocean Resources and Hawaiian Affairs (WLH) Committee. Good things can come out of a bad situation. I really enjoyed working with House Chairman of WLH, Ken Ito. Serving under his leadership was an honor. I had so much fun. I enjoyed working on land use laws, important agricultural land designation, agricultural incentives, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs settlement with the State of Hawaii, fishing issues, dam liability to help ensure water will be available for the farmers, liability on unimproved lands, and photographing of historical buildings, just to name a few. The legislation I worked on in that committee was very rewarding.
I enjoyed working with all the elected officials, appointed and civil service government officials, private sector representatives, non-profit organization leaders, community leaders, constituents, and many individuals. I have much aloha to Speaker Calvin K.Y. Say, Rep. Jerry L. Chang, Rep. Ken Ito, Rep. Bob Nakasone, and Rep. Clift Tsuji who have been my friends through good times and bad. I enjoyed working with Finance Chair Marcus Oshiro and Majority Leader Kirk Caldwell, two leaders who have much more to offer in the years to come. As usual, Speaker Emeritus Joe Souki was also a great person to work with this session. I have thanks to my friendship with Rep. Michael Magaoay who included me in the Filipino Caucus since he became chair of the caucus in 2006 because my district's largest ethnic group is Filipino. The sophomore House class stepped up to the plate in many leadership roles. It was nice working with freshman Reps. Jimmy Tokioka, Roland Sagum, and Angus McKelvey on issues that went before the House WLH Committee. I wish all my House colleagues the best in the rest of 2008!
I enjoyed working with Sen. Carol Fukunaga on the identity theft and harassment by impersonation bills, which passed the legislature. I have to mention Sen. Jill Tokuda who I have been friends with since we were young college kids in the Young Democrats. She is one year younger me, thus, currently the youngest politician in the State of Hawaii. I am now the second youngest politician and was the youngest in the last two-year period before Sen. Tokuda's arrival in elected politics. Her husband Kyle Michibata and I worked for Sen. Fukunaga and he worked for me in my first year in the House in 2002-2003. I have to say, I really enjoyed working with Sen. Tokuda because she was the counterpart for the important agriculture lands bills as chairwoman of the Senate agriculture committee. Rep. Clift Tsuji, House agriculture committee chairman, Rep. Ken Ito, House WLH chairman, and myself really had a pleasure working with her. I am very impressed with her in her first year as chairwoman.
This has been my favorite legislative session in my six years in the Hawaii State Legislature.
JON RIKI KARAMATSU 