One bad bill, one last chance to stop 40-year corporate and military lease extensions for public, "ceded" lands

Your calls and e-mails to the Senators and Representatives below will be critical to stopping sweetheart deals for public and stolen Hawaiian lands, that will impact our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and future generations.

​There are so many reasons why HB499 HD2 SD2 is a bad bill:

1.  It is anti-democratic and undermines citizen participation in the lawmaking process.  Hundreds of pages of testimony submitted on this measure (see testimony links here) and on its companion, SB257 SD2 (see testimony links here; SB257 SD2 is thankfully dead for now) demonstrate overwhelming opposition by grassroots individuals and community organizations, who outnumber its handful of corporate supporters by over 20:1.  Citizen participation should be respected and encouraged, not railroaded over by legislators and corporate interests.

These are the legislators who have until Thursday to  decide the fate of  HB499 HD2 SD2, a bill that has been ramrodded through the legislative process despite overwhelming opposition by grassroots individuals and organizations, who have outnumbered the bill's handful of corporate supporters by more than 20 to 1 (see for yourself: click on the "Testimony" links here).

NOTE: Only Senator Kurt Fevella has consistently voted in opposition to this bill.  

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​E-mail these legislators and ask that they KILL HB499 HD2 SD2: 
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

2.  It invites sweetheart deals for corporate and military interests that have already enjoyed exclusive use of public and "ceded" (aka stolen Hawaiian lands) for multiple generations -- over half a century -- by giving them another four decades of exclusive use of these lands.  Meanwhile, the public and the Native Hawaiian community will not have had any ability to reassess and ensure the best uses of these lands for up to 105 years, or longer.

3.  It will lead to the loss of public and "ceded" lands.  Multigenerational long-term leases make lessees feel so entitled that they invariably seek to repeatedly extend their leases, and even obtain the fee interest in lands they feel like should be theirs to own.  This bill makes every industrial, commercial, resort, and government/military lease of public and "ceded" lands (other than University of Hawai'i leases) eligible for a 40 year extension -- which will create tremendous political pressure to just continue extending these leases or even selling off our limited public and "ceded" land base.   

4.  It will perpetuate the historic injustice inflicted upon the Native Hawaiian people, who continue to struggle with the far-ranging intergenerational impacts of the theft of their lands and government.   The state and federal governments have acknowledged these historic and ongoing harms and have pledged to seek reconciliation with the Native Hawaiian people -- yet this bill would all but sell off the "ceded" lands stolen from the Hawaiian Kingdom, extinguishing Native Hawaiians' claims and the ability of the future lāhui to negotiate for a land base. 

5.  It is systemic racism in bill form. Non-Hawaiian lessees were originally able to obtain their public and "ceded" land leases because of the socioeconomic advantages they had over Hawaiians (and other ethnic groups) dealing with the challenges of an anti-Hawaiian, white-dominated oligarchy.  HB499 would allow these lessees to continue profiting off of lands that were stolen from the Hawaiian people for another four decades, notwithstanding the concerns and overwhelming opposition of Native Hawaiians and Native Hawaiian serving organizations, and the broken promises of reconciliation it would leave behind.  


And there are many more.  Legislators cannot ignore these reasons and cannot ignore the voices of their constituents forever.  We can stop this bad bill -- but only if we continue to call and e-mail our elected officials and spread the word to others.  Please take a moment to e-mail the legislators (feel free to use these talking points) and share this post far and wide!

E-mail these legislators and ask that they KILL HB499 HD2 SD2: 
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]