Senate Standing Committee on Economic Development and Tourism

Hi. Hello, and welcome to the hearing with the Senate Hello. And welcome to the hearing with the Senate committee on economic development and tourism. Today is Tuesday, 04/07/2026. And this is our 1PM agenda.

We're in Conference Room 2 To nine. This hearing is being streamed live on YouTube and unlikely event that we must abruptly end this hearing due to technical difficulties. Committee reconvene on Thursday, 04/09/2026 at 1PM in conference of two to nine. We have a one minute time limit for all testifiers. We have six governors messages on this agenda.

First appointee GM six 08, gubernatorial nominee William Smith, Submitted for consideration and confirmation to the community based economic development advisory council board term to expire on 06/30/2029. First up, test of our list is administrator Dennis Ling on behalf of DBEDT.

On behalf of Dennis Ling and BDSP, we stand the charge for this nomination and the Senator.

Thank you. Next up, director Tokyoka for DBEDT, economic development tourism, in support. Anyone else wishing to testify on that measure? Seeing none, do we have William Smith online? Perfect.

William, maybe you would go ahead and say a few words.

Thank you. Yes. First, I appreciate, and this is very proud and happy to have this nomination. I work hard in the business community every day here on Kauai. I've been on Kauai and in Hawaii for about five years.

I moved here to help a small credit union start their business lending, and then I've been moved out of that role and have now been the director of the Kauai SBDC office for two years. So my entire time here on Kauai has been, very actively involved in solving problems and assisting business owners, be able to get started, grow, and thrive.

And I have a long background commercial lending, and I've owned a couple of my own businesses and have done financial consulting with small businesses for over thirty years. And with that, I'm happy to take any questions.

Thank you, members. Any questions? I I think you and I must have talked your ears off when I did talk to you, so I don't have any questions as well. So thank you. Thank you for wanting to serve.

Next up, GM609. Somebody for consideration and confirmation, economic development adviser advisory council, commutator Michelle Alpige, for term to expire 06/30/2029. First up, administrator Dennis Ling.

On behalf of Dennis and DDSD, is that insurance for the examination? I don't remember.

Thank you. And next up, director Tokyoka also in support. Anyone else wishing to testify?

Seeing none, Michelle, I'd be gay. If you would say a few words, please.

Hi, Michelle. I'm from Hunan, Hawaii Island. I've been with government for the last maybe seventeen years. I started in the state and I'm now with the county. I joined the county because I wanted to be closer to my community.

I really believe in, community ownership and helping our small businesses thrive, especially our really small businesses that are really trying to get over the hump of, you know, getting to the next level. So that's what I focus on in my role. My background, I have a I I've done a lot of things in in my life. So if you look at my resume, I have a broad, experience. I mainly hone in on, like, the accounting side and the data side and also community engagement.

But, yeah, I just I I love my community, and I'm always trying to help our small guys take the next step and grow.

Thank you. Members, any questions? K. Michelle, I know you and I talked a while, but, I just get one question for you. How would you go about evaluating projects that come before you as a member of the council?

Yeah. I think, the main thing is community impact. So when we review, loan applications, I'm always looking for what is that give back that businesses have that is other than themselves. Like I said, I'm, I'm all about communities. So if there's a business that is looking for things other than their own profit and their own success, that's number one.

I also look for the, the type of measurable, data that they have to, to kind of see what the progress is, for that impact. I think that's super important. I know as a business owner, it's, it's hard to track all the things, but I think that if our small businesses can demonstrate that impact, with tangible data, that really helps them soar. I also think that, the networks and partnerships that businesses have, is super important.

We kinda all know, like living on, you know, on all of our islands, a lot of a lot of the ways that you can step up is through relationships.

And it's important to me to make sure that those businesses demonstrate how connected they are within our community to a variety of groups. So, yeah, that's that's kinda how I would I would view. Thank you. Do that. Yeah.

You know, for small businesses, particularly during these, very challenging times, you know, with weather and other kinds of disruptions, what are some additional ways that you think perhaps the nonprofit community and government might partner together to provide, you know, additional resources and tools to small businesses? Because I would imagine, that's one of the areas that would really represent, a big step forward.

Yeah. I always see I I know it's hard sometimes, especially in government because we're so we're so kinda like, you know, buy the book. I I do think though that help small businesses is taking a deeper look into what the issues are. There are so many, so many businesses that are suffering because of like just stuck points in the different types of processes that we have as state and county government.

And I think that the government and nonprofit organizations can work together to help alleviate some of that stuff, whether it's educating small businesses to navigate some of the processes that we have to, that we have to kind of go through.

But also, I've been seeing that there's a lot of businesses who are already established. They already know the ways, you know, like the ways that they can get things done. A lot of our small businesses don't don't have that information or they're not connected to the people that know that information, and they're also not aware of what the right questions are to ask.

So I think that one of the ways that I I do in my own my own work and, like, our department does, right, is try to help help understand, like, what the issues are. Like, what are the specific set points?

Whether it's, like, permitting, licensing, anything. It can even be filling out an a grant application, but, like, really understanding where the set point is and then helping them find a way to navigate that. Sometimes it's maybe that's not the right way, but actually pointing them to a way forward and not just kind of saying, Oh, you can't do that. But actually showing them, Oh, you may not be able to do this, but this is another option.

I really feel like, our government and nonprofits can help in that way.

Okay. Well, I know, you know, today we honored, Hawaiian Council, you know, which has been a really, very, impressive, you know, organization over the years. And in a way, it looks as though maybe, you know, the new model for government is in in the instance of the storms, you know, OHA appropriated funds or designated funds to be used for, emergency relief and other kind of economic recovery purposes. And then they they, partnered with Hawaiian Council to handle a lot of the execution and implementation.

And in a way, because so many of the, issues we're dealing with in today's times are so time sensitive, you know, it's it almost seems like we need to encourage bigger, partnerships with nonprofits and the community in order to really help businesses survive.

Yeah. For sure. And I think one of the ways I'm sorry to speak again, but, like, one of the, one of the ways that we can do that too is, like, having these aggregated spaces or shared processing facilities or shared commercial kitchens. I was talking to Senator DeCoite the other day and just, like, trying like, you know, like one of the one of the to me, I personally feel like one of the most important industries we have is agriculture and food systems.

And, you know, as long as we have our food good, then I feel like we can, you know, we can be good for, you know, the long term.

Stuck point here on Hawaii Island, right? Like we don't have enough processing facilities, we don't even have enough kitchens, right? There's so many people that can make food or value added value added products, but they just don't have the facilities or we just don't know what the processes are to get certain facilities certified. So I think having these aggregated spaces where people can learn how to do that properly and then also share facilities, I think that's another way that the government and nonprofits can help.

K. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay.

Next up, GM six ten. So many for consideration confirmation of community based economic development advisory council, gubernatorial nominee, Kiana Nisman for term to expire 06/30/2029. For some, Dennis Ling, administrator.

On behalf of Dennis Ling and BESD, is that an strong support for this nomination and honorably

Thank you. And Nixa, director of Tokyo also in support. Anybody else wish you to testify? Seeing none, Kayana, if you would like to say a few words, please.

Yeah. Mahalo. Mahalo for having me today. I'm not sure if this is allowed, but I would also lend my support to both Michelle and Will as well. But for me myself, my career is summed up pretty succinctly.

I've spent a lot of time thirty five years in the financial services industry. I've worked with borrowers of all sizes from the Small Micro businesses up until corporate clients. I worked also with middle market clients as well during my career. I've also spent time in the nonprofit space as treasurer for a number of organizations. I am also a small business owner.

I was previously the center director like Will. I was at the SBDC East Hawaii up until October and then I launched my own consulting practice since then. And so really my goal with this consulting practice is to take the knowledge the Iike that I've gained over the last thirty five years and share it with folks here in Hawaii. I use this analogy. Last week I introduced myself to a board of directors at another organization.

When I first started my career, I was looking at the little $500 lines of credit and when I left the banking industry, the last project I worked on was over $1,000,000,000. In between those two milestones, that I worked on was quite an education in terms of how money flows into and out of the financial system. And so once again, I wanna take that that knowledge and share it with people.

One of the ways that I do that when I work with small businesses currently is it doesn't even matter where you are in the phase of your small business, whether you're a startup, established, or maturing, I always start people off with cash flow. Let's look at what your cash flow is a year from now and so I really get down to the basics of financial statements.

I want people to understand how to read their financial statements. I want them to be able to communicate very succinctly the business's financial performance. And so if the goal is to get lender or capital ready, I can help them prepare, but it all comes down to cash flow. Can I afford this payment or not? And it goes for small micro businesses up into the largest corporate clients.

It all comes down to just one number. Can I afford that payment or not? And to get to that point, you under you have to understand your cash flow. And so that's kind of the view that I take when working with clients today.

Thank thank you, Kiana. Any questions for the individual? See see, no. No. I just wanted to say this.

You know, I I like the fact the conversation you and I had, literally financial literacy. And I think you used a really good example, you know, farmers and, you know, Michelle spoke about it a little earlier. You know, the challenges, they're all working, and then they're free to add in their labor. And, you know, having to actually put them sit them down and to factor in all of that outside of saying, okay, I made a profit, but it really not affected my labor.

So I think a lot of what you have and the background of running a billion dollar business brings a lot to the table.

So thank you for wanting to serve on the council. Mahalo.

Mahalo. If I could say one more quick thing, just to kind of a follow-up on that point. And so one of the things that I've considered or kind of thought about and you've kind of hit it on the head is financial literacy. Yeah? And so when I talk to you, financial literacy starts in kindergarten.

You cannot wait until you get to high school to understand these concepts or even after. And so agriculture is one way to teach financial literacy. And so financial literacy programs that I've looked at, it's all western based, yeah? And so we need something that's homegrown, that's relevant for our state. And so we can use agriculture to teach that, to our population.

Mahalo.

Thank you. Okay. Next up, GM six twelve submitting for consideration confirmation to small business regulatory review board gubernatorial nominee, Park, for term to expire 06/30/2029. First up, director Tokioka for business economic development tourism in support. Jonathan Schick, chairperson, testifying for small business regulatory board.

Chair Schick supports

Thank you. Anyone else willing to testify on the individual's behalf? Seeing none, Neil, if you would like to go ahead and say a few words.

Thank you for having me today. I'm honored to be here and to to be considered for this appointment for those small business regulatory review board. My apologies, Senator DeCoite. I know that we tried to connect before this meeting, and I'm sorry that we didn't have a chance to have a conversation. But I just wanted to, you know, give you a little bit about little bit about myself.

I currently am working with the food basket, Hawaii Islands Food Bank. Originally, when I started the small business regulatory review board that my I was with the Japanese Chamber of Commerce of an industry of Hawaii.

And, yeah, I'm really I've always seen the how important it is that rules and processes are clear and practical for the people they affect, and that's what I've tried to do in my everyday life to try to make it to try to lead by listening, understanding real world impact, and helping find practical paths forward. And I like to just follow-up for your consideration and, yeah, open up for questions.

Thank you. Thank you, Leland, for wanting to serve. I do know that my staff had interviewed and and talked started with you as well. But any questions?

See have good answers to these questions.

See, Nana, I just have one for you, Leland. What kind of economic development projects do you believe are needed for the Big Island?

Well, I think Michelle Kinda talked a little bit about it. It was more agricultural infrastructure and, value added production. That's key, I think. It's, you know, Hawaii Island alone has 42%, food insecurity rate, and 63% of that is children. And so how can we better, you know, keep whatever produce and stuff that we have here and, you know, be able to feed our people.

And and another thing that's a big ticket item for a lot of us is affordable housing for the workforce. And I think that that's two of my would be my biggest economic projects that I would I would think would be successful for the for the big.

So so, you know, being that the Merry monarch is taking place right now on the Big Island

Yeah. It's crazy around here.

Yeah. So side time, everybody's flocked into the Big Island and, you know, the crafters and, everybody does fashion wear and stuff. How much of those individuals do you believe that are doing meals and stuff are utilizing, like, the beef from The and vegetables. Because you guys have a lot of, egg going on up in Cabo We have

a lot of egg going on. You know, that's a good question. I wouldn't have those numbers, but it's crazy how much food we actually import from the Mainland. And I think what was it? Did they say, like, 90% of our food is imported?

That's only 10% that we that we keep here. And so how do we flip that, you know, where it's 90% of the food that we make here utilized and 10% that we import? And I honestly, I have no good answer for that. Or and sorry. I wouldn't know how much they actually use, but I'm sure a lot of it is imported.

There are a few, I think, vendors out there that really try to use local, which is awesome. But yeah.

Well, well, I noticed I noticed one Senator from the big guy, and he's a rancher. I've been meaning to ask him how much of that beef he actually they're using at the Marriott. Thank you. But thank you. Thank you very much for Alright.

Thank you, committee. Aloha.

Aloha. Moving on, GM613, city submitting for consideration and confirmation of a small business regulatory board. Cynthia Hobson for term to expire 06/30/2029. First of Jonathan Schick for small business regulatory review board. Support,

miss Hobson to the small Business Regulatory Board. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, director Tokyoko, also in support. Anyone else wishing to testify? Seeing none. Cynthia, would you go ahead, please say a few words?

So background on yourself, please.

Thank you for this opportunity, committee. My name's Cynthia Hobson. I've been in Hawaii since '96. I've been a small business consultant since '92, and I'm just here to help Hawaiian small businesses get a a foothold on what the regulatory system is like. I did come across a a potential registrant the other day, and they were having such an issue going through DCCA with registering their business.

They kept getting pushed back and pushed back. So my my heart is getting it so that we're not forty fifth in the ranking, but we move up to at least the first 20 within the states.

Thank you. Members, any questions? See, not I got I got one question for you, and I know you and I talked about grants and and securing funding to help a lot of small business themselves. So do you think Hawaii is getting all the grant money for economic development projects that are available? No.

But what can't what what can we do to to secure?

I think take a deeper dive into the research of grants. I also research grants. I believe that there's so much more out there we have access to. And, people look at Hawaii as being a stand alone state, but we're not we're part of The US. And some of those foundations, corporations are willing to support us as well.

Thank you. Sydney, thank you. Can you just move on to GM794? So many for consideration, confirmation to Hawaii Technology Development Corporation, Nicole Kacao for term to expire 06/30/2028. First sub director, Tokyo Oka in support.

Peter Dan's president and CEO for Servco Pacific Incorporated also in support. Kelly Oka in testifying for PACSA in support as well as Rick Hopper, an individual testifying in support. Anybody else wishing to testify seeing none on the call view?

Oh oh, I'm sorry, Chong. I just I just completely went over you.

Oh, I'm sorry. Corporation is sending our written testimony to our support of the call.

Thanks, Chong. Nicole Hewitt. Say a few words, please.

Sure. Good afternoon, chair, vice chair, and Senator Fukunaga. I am really thankful and humbled to be here today. My name is Nicole Kakal. I am the executive director of the True Initiative.

We are a nonprofit based here in Hawaii that helps tech enable organizations to help create more technology jobs across the state. I've had a lot of experience specifically within the innovation field. Prior to True, I was I launched an innovation consultancy together with Forbes Media based out of New York City. Ran that for about five years before coming back home to Hawaii, and starting at True.

I've been in the role with True for about a year and some change, and I am really looking forward to, developing the relationships, bringing my connections, and bringing my network to be able to help, the HTDC board, the HTDC staff, the leadership there to be able to help create a technology ecosystem here in Hawaii.

Thank you. Thank you, Dua. I I gotta tell you. When I first looked at your resume, I was like, man, you're so overqualified. And and all the years in this, I'm like, oh, you just don't match your age to the mom and yours.

But, anyway, I I just couldn't let questions for because it's you right up his alley.

I mean, as sure to quite mention them. You're the model that we wanna create more of in Hawaii. Local girl, went to the Mainland, school there, really achieved a lot in the technology world and are bringing all of that experience back here. But Hawaii is so much different than New York. Give us your ideas on what are like some of the struggles that Hawaii faces in actually launching a diversified economy.

We've been talking about that for decades but we're still stuck on tourism. We haven't been able to get any momentum really going to get us off of off of tourism. What do you see as a pain point, sir? What is the solutions you would bring to the table?

I would say it's all about exposure. It's all about exposure to the different industries that can take place here in the islands. Seeing more, of the different industries that are beyond tourism and hospitality, because there are a lot of technologies, as you know, that are changing the realm of the future of work.

So we have to be on top of that, and we have to be more or less or we have to be able to articulate what we wanna see in the future rather than be reactive to that. And so I think some of the biggest pain points are being able to convince other organizations to open up shop here in the islands because I think I was speaking with you about this that Hawaii is ranked number 48 when it comes to doing business in The United States.

And so I think by facilitating, being able to bring these organizations here to create the jobs, to create the exposure of different career paths to the different people that are looking to diversify beyond tourism and hospitality, I think that's key.

You know, I'm so excited about the opportunities with AI. But for those of us on this side of the table, we have to also be concerned about just how AI doesn't leave others behind. And that, we have, you know, good paying jobs, not just for the highly educated and those who have, certain means, but that people are not gonna get left behind with AI.

Where's Hoei's role in your view on how to balance the good paying quality jobs in the AI, but making sure that our average citizen is also being benefited from AI?

I think you said it best. I think every single role here and not just the high paying jobs, but to the frontline workers, especially in hospitality and tourism, there is a large number of our population that's gonna have their roles affected by artificial intelligence. And I think Hawaii's role would be to lead with providing and being able to develop a locally governed, a locally governed AI hub.

And I'm actively working towards creating a Hawaii center for AI to be able to not just do research, but to actually create tangible opportunities for Hawaii's population to be able to not only upscale and reskill, but fundamentally understand how their jobs are going to evolve and dictate how they want that how they wanna see that.

So I wanna follow-up because I know when you and I talked, you were headed off to MIT for a conference. Yes. So tell me what you saw there and what you think that that conference offer that we could kinda mesh into Hawaii to diversify? Because I know we talked about the tourism industry. And, you know, I've always watched AI closely, you know, because of as we use AI and we input information, who owns that information? Right. How do we model this With the next generation because they're so tech savvy. I was curious about the MIT conference.

Absolutely. I just got back, flew in late Sunday. So it was an amazing opportunity to be able to see what other collaborators with MIT are doing all over the country. So what we're doing with TRUE in particular, together with MIT, is bringing together the MIT path program to Hawaii. And that's providing not just AI literacy skills, but data science foundations to the community colleges, not just through the main campuses through And so we believe that through accessibility.

We saw this model actually in Georgia, which is why the conference was in Atlanta. And they were basically passing on their model and showing what can be done. They essentially took the curriculum that MIT developed, which was 75% baked, and contextualize it contextualize the last 25% to be able to be more conducive to that environment. And in Georgia, their main bread and butter is fintech. And I think for Hawaii, I think we can really define we want our bread and butter to be.

And so I was able to see those possibilities there and how they are able to not just have the programs within Georgia State University, but also within the community colleges.

So if you if you took Georgia and, you know, so lately, we've been having a lot of conversation. Legislation this year has been shown industry. We saw what happened last year, and then, you know, we lost the tax credit and stuff. You know, they've told me keep an eye on AI. It'll be impactful.

It could hurt the film industry. You know, Georgia also is good at the film industry. Have you seen AI complement the film industry along the way, or has it hurt the industry going forward?

Not exclusively in Georgia, but I have seen this happen in Massachusetts actually. They're developing curriculum there that they're actually I was actually in conversations with, a school there that's developing curriculum with MIT, specifically. They don't call it AI in film. They call it AI media and the creative economy to be more inclusive because it is like running a business.

And speaking I know earlier we were speaking with small business experts here, and so if we position it as trying to understand and develop small business owners in a way where it's not just about, the technicalities of film, but the wrap around services around that to help provide support for entrepreneurship, I think we would have a lot more success specifically within the film industry in Hawaii.

So I noticed that you've spoken at many different, would it be colleges Yes. And so forth. What was your walk away, you know, as these students are are listening to what you have to say, they're engaged. You know, they see that technology is, you know, we're on the right path and, you know, what what do you believe the you know, was it a welcoming response that could she drive coming I mean, moving forward in the technology sector?

I would say overall, the main sentiment the prevailing sentiment for students that I've spoken to, they were hopeful, but they're also very concerned about how how does this affect to them and their ability to land a job. Because it's already hard as it is, and with jobs changing, and the the nature of the work being, being redefined. They're worried about that.

But the way I speak about AI is a lot more, about the opportunity and how you can actually dictate how your job is going to evolve. And so that gives them hope, and that gives them the sort of right mindset to be able to ask the right questions instead of sort of living through fear in that regard.

Thank you. Any other questions? Seeing none. Okay. We're shooting to the thank you.

Okay. First off, GM608. Somebody for consideration and confirmation to community based. Hang on. Decision making for GM608, submitting for consideration, community based economic development, GM609, submitting for community based economic development advisory council, William Smith, Michelle Agbije, as well as Kiana Neesman, GM612, business regulatory board, small business regulatory board, GM613, small business regulatory board, Cynthia Hopson.

All terms to expire for 06/30/2029. Recommendation, advising, consent. Members, any discussion? Seeing none, Vice Chair for the vote, chair goes aye.

I vote yes. Senator Fukunaga. Aye. Senator Kim and Fevella are excused. Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you. And last up, GM794, Voy Technology Development Corporation, Nicole Kakao for term to express 6/30/2028 recommendation to advise and consent. Members, any discussion? Seeing none, Vice Chair Wakai for the vote. Chair goes aye.

I vote yes. Senator Fukunaga? Aye. Senator Kim and Fevella, excuse chair. Your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you. And thank you all for wanting to serve. With that, we are adjourned.