Holt on the record

Requires employers to include salary ranges on all job listings. Workers deserve to know what a job pays before they apply. Wage transparency reduces pay gaps and shifts negotiating power back to workers. Chair Sayama, Vice Chair Lee, and Members of the Committee, I am submitting testimony in support of HB 2367. I am a small business owner in Hilo, and I have run several businesses over the years. Every time I have hired someone, I have been upfront about what the job pays from the very first conversation. Not because the law required it, but because it is the right thing to do. When someone shows up to work for you, they are spending minutes and hours of their one precious life helping you build your dream. That is an extraordinary gift. The very least you owe them in return is to be completely honest about what that time is worth to you before they ever walk through the door. Fully informed consent is the bare minimum. It is also worth saying: placing the burden on job seekers to play a guessing game about pay, while employers hold all the information, is a race to the bottom that benefits no one except employers who want to lowball people. That is not a market working well. That is a power imbalance being exploited, and the people on the losing end are the ones who can least afford it. So I do not buy the argument that requiring small employers to disclose pay is too burdensome. If you know what the job pays, just say so. The current law already requires salary transparency on job listings but carves out an exception for employers with fewer than fifty employees. In Hawaiʻi, that exception covers most of the actual jobs people are applying for, especially in communities like Hilo. HB 2367 closes that loophole and levels the playing field for job seekers across the board. I urge the committee to pass HB 2367. Mahalo for your time and consideration.

Establishes a modern, unified legal framework for cooperatives in Hawaiʻi, including worker-owned, multi-stakeholder, and community cooperatives. Makes it easier for workers to own their workplaces. Chair Matayoshi, Vice Chair Grandinetti, and Members of the Committee, I am submitting testimony in STRONG SUPPORT of HB 2404. I live in Hilo, and I tried to open a coffee shop under a cooperative model. I wanted it to be worker-owned, with the people making the coffee having a real stake in the business, sharing in the profits, and having a voice in how things were run. It seemed like exactly the kind of locally rooted, community-building business Hawaiʻi needs more of. But when I sat down with an attorney to figure out how to structure it, I ran into a wall. Hawaiʻi's cooperative statutes are built for agricultural associations and consumer co-ops. A worker-owned coffee shop did not fit into any of them cleanly. My options were to either force my cooperative vision into a legal structure that did not recognize cooperative principles, or organize as a regular corporation and lose the whole point.  HB 2404 would have changed that for me, and it will change it for the next person anywhere in Hawaiʻi who wants to build something together with their community rather than just for a handful of investors. This bill creates one flexible, unified legal framework that finally makes room for worker co-ops, multi-stakeholder co-ops, and other cooperative models that are already succeeding across the country. It lowers the legal complexity and cost that stopped me and others like me from getting started. I urge the committee to pass HB 2404. Mahalo for your time and consideration.

Requires every county to implement fare-free public transit by 2027, funded by increasing the environmental response tax on petroleum products. Mobility is a right. The people who need transit most should not pay for it at the point of use. Aloha Chair Lowen, Vice Chair Perruso, and Members of the Committee, My name is Cristina Holt, and I strongly support HB 2451. Let's be clear about something. Public transportation is a core function of government. This is exactly what our tax dollars are for. Roads, water systems, public safety, public schools, transit. These are not luxury services. They are foundational infrastructure that allow people to participate in society. When we charge fares to ride the bus, we are placing a direct fee on mobility. That fee disproportionately impacts working class people, students, kūpuna, and families who are already stretched thin. The people who rely on public transit the most are the ones asked to pay for it at the point of use. Meanwhile, we subsidize highways, parking, and fossil fuel infrastructure in countless ways that are less visible but far more expensive. In 2018, the Legislature passed Act 15, committing Hawaiʻi to a zero emissions clean economy by 2045. Transportation is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in our state. We cannot meet that goal while continuing to structure our systems around private vehicle dependence. Fare free public transit is a practical climate policy and an equity policy at the same time. If we want people to leave their cars at home, we need to make the alternative accessible, reliable, and free at the point of service. HB2451 funds this transition by increasing the environmental response, energy, and food security tax on petroleum products and directing a dedicated portion into a special fund for fare free transit. That is a rational policy design. Fossil fuel consumption helps fund the public systems that reduce fossil fuel dependence. Government should be investing in shared infrastructure that benefits everyone. This bill does that. It removes a barrier for working families, supports our climate commitments, and uses tax policy the way it was intended, to shape outcomes that serve the public good. I urge you to pass HB2451. Mahalo for your consideration.

Companion to HB2404. Clarifies that cooperative associations can include worker cooperatives, multi-stakeholder cooperatives, producer cooperatives, and consumer cooperatives. Broadens the legal tools available for community ownership. Chair Keohokalole, Vice Chair Fukunaga, and Members of the Committee, I am submitting testimony in STRONG SUPPORT of SB 2922. I live in Hilo, and I tried to open a coffee shop under a cooperative model. I wanted it to be worker-owned, with the people making the coffee having a real stake in the business, sharing in the profits, and having a voice in how things were run. It seemed like exactly the kind of locally rooted, community-building business Hawaiʻi needs more of. But when I sat down with an attorney to figure out how to structure it, I ran into a wall. Hawaiʻi's cooperative statutes are built for agricultural associations and consumer co-ops. A worker-owned coffee shop did not fit into any of them cleanly. My options were to either force my cooperative vision into a legal structure that did not recognize cooperative principles, or organize as a regular corporation and lose the whole point. SB 2922 would have changed that for me, and it will change it for the next person in Hilo, or Kona, or anywhere in Hawaiʻi who wants to build something together with their community rather than just for a handful of investors. Please Support SB 2922. Mahalo