Happy Thanksgiving, from all of us at the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.
This is a day when we stop to count our blessings. We are thankful for the freedoms and great opportunities we all enjoy in America — and to the many men and women who fought for and defended those freedoms.
Speaking for the Grassroot Institute staff, there’s another group that we are grateful for today: you, our committed members, donors and friends, who have helped us achieve so much in recent months.
Thanks to you, we were able to educate voters about our many concerns regarding the proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed the state Legislature to levy property taxes for education. We even joined a legal challenge to the ballot measure’s problematic language and prevailed in the Hawaii Supreme Court.
Thanks to your support, the Grassroot Institute also was able to bring national attention to the way state policy failed Hawaii residents who lived in the Big Island’s high-risk lava zones. The state’s creation years ago of the Hawaii Property Insurance Associated put those citizens in danger by offering an incentive to live in areas that private insurance companies deemed too risky to insure. By bringing attention to this issue, we alerted policymakers to the dangers of continuing this approach.
And thanks to your continued commitment, the Grassroot Institute was able to preemptively call for a Jones Act exemption when our islands were threatened by Hurricane Lane. We are grateful that the exemption wasn’t necessary, but we are proud that we could take action on behalf of our fellow citizens in advance, in case disaster actually had befallen us.
This has all been possible because of you. The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii has become the state’s preeminent voice for economic opportunity and individual liberty, and together we are making a difference. And for that we are truly thankful.
Wishing you and yours the happiest of holidays!
