Democratic State Senator David Ige has earned a reputation as a fiscally responsible legislator with strong business experience. Appointed in 1985 by then-Governor George Ariyoshi to fill a vacancy in the House of Representatives, David served in the House for eight years before beginning his 21-year tenure as the State Senator from District 16.
Respected for his intelligence and decision-making abilities, David’s peers have chosen him to chair a variety of committees for 28 of his 29 years serving the public. Today, he is driven to lead the State as Governor to see that the execution of legislation is implemented to move Hawai‘i forward.
As Governor, David will work to improve our educational system to create an environment for more students to achieve professionally. This will concurrently provide a pipeline of talented workers, attracting outside companies interested in establishing new businesses here.
To help existing and new business, as Governor, David will upgrade our State agencies’ technological capabilities to enable more efficient online processing of applications, taxes, procurement payments and other transactions. He will facilitate the availability of risk/venture capital for entrepreneurs and innovators in strategic growth industries, such as information technology, health care, energy and local agriculture.
Currently Chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, Senator Ige remained cautiously optimistic about the slight economic recovery to ensure we were not spending more funds than the State would bring in. This approach proved sensible, as forecasts are projecting fewer revenues for the State. Senator Ige cut more than $800 million in funding requests to create a balanced budget.
As Governor, before any consideration of raising taxes, Ige will provide direction to modernize the State Tax Department’s technology system to enable us to capture owed, but uncollected taxes — estimated to be as much as $500 million — to add to our State revenues.
David knows firsthand how families in Hawai‘i struggle to make ends meet from his experiences of growing up in a working-class neighborhood in Pearl City with five brothers. He is running for the right reasons and will be a strong, yet humble leader for our State.
