Business View Magazine | April/May 2022

34 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 4 reviewing those bills, we submitted more than 50 testimonies some that supported and some that opposed certain bills. And we have a win rate of 41 percent. That’s something we’re really proud of. Our Government Relations Committee (GRC) meets as a group on a weekly basis to go over bills and discuss how the bills may impact different sectors of the industry. We take those comments from our committee and we write testimonies to support or oppose something that’s coming up. “At this time, we’re watching over 237 bills – of those 21 are high priority and since January this year, we’ve submitted nine testimonies. Our committee is very well informed and that’s a valuable service that we bring to our members. In its 2022 economic forecast, NAHB reports that the cost of housing is continuously increasing, nationally, but in Hawaii, a $1,000 home price increase would price out 200 families from qualifying for a mortgage. That’s very significant here. We’re in the middle of a housing crisis and we’re trying to figure out how many multi- family homes the economy can support. NAHB also reports that regulatory costs add almost $94,000 to the price of each new home on a national average, and we believe that’s higher in Hawaii. So it’s very concerning that we have a population that’s starting to leave Hawaii because of the high cost of living.” BVM: How have you supported members during the pandemic? Leorna: “We worked with several other affiliates to create an industry commitment to show that we were dedicated to uphold jobsite safety in the face of COVID – industry-wide. We had many members and associations sign this pledge that we submitted to our elected officials as an effort to show that the industry is united and we want to make sure we’re being safe during the pandemic and to keep our industry up and running. “Construction in Hawaii was considered essential