Sen. Angus McKelvey said he is making the post-session rounds to speak with constituents in his district.

State Sen. Angus McKelvey (D) represents Senate District 6, which includes West Maui, Maalaea, Waikapu and South Maui. McKelvey is no stranger to state politics — he was a member of the State House representing West Maui from 2006 to 2022.

In 2022, he ran and won a State Senate seat. Normally this seat would run for four years, but because of reapportionment and the need to stagger Senate seats, he will hold office for two years.

He has just completed the first legislative session of his first year in the Senate. He recently sat down with the Lahaina News to recap some of the new developments affecting his district.

McKelvey takes a big picture approach; he not only talked about what he brought home but also the projects and programs that he tried to pass that didn’t make it into the final package.

On the plus side, he named the authorization of $20 million in special purpose revenue bonds to aid the financing of the long-delayed West Maui hospital. Two more wins are a $3 million appropriation for the Lahaina Boat Harbor and an additional $3 million for improvements to the Mala Boat Ramp. These funds are subject to approval and release by the governor.

He also pointed to a $45 million appropriation for the state to purchase the Haggai Institute (formerly the Maui Sun Hotel) in Kihei in a working partnership with the County of Maui. He said plans call for re-purposing it to be affordable rental housing for area teachers as well as first responders such as fire and police. The building would also house a preschool and related facilities. Looking at the island as a whole, McKelvey mentioned $32 million in state subsidy money earmarked for Maui Memorial Medical Center, the Valley Isle’s only acute care hospital.

He also said there are funds appropriated for Lokelani Intermediate School for improvements, including much-needed upgrades to HVAC equipment.

McKelvey said he was the co-author of two bills which did pass. One related to closing a loophole in the law to allow prosecution of those who desecrate Native Hawaiian sites, and the other to protect “a woman’s right to choose.”

This measure is specifically aimed at safeguarding women who come to Hawaii from states which have banned abortion from becoming the target of long distance prosecution. This legislation also protects Hawaii and Mainland medical staff. It replaces an executive order by the governor that was only temporary.

McKelvey warned that the state government’s future financial picture might not be as rosy as it presently appears, with a reported $2 billion surplus. He pointed out that a lot of that money was emergency federal funding due to the Covid pandemic, and once spent would be unlikely to continue.

Two projects he advocated that did not advance were $70 million in construction funds for a northern extension of the Lahaina Bypass, and $15 million to build the long-delayed pedestrian overpass for Kulanihakoi High School, the official name for the new Kihei secondary school. McKelvey said he intends to continue to pursue funding for these two CIP projects in the next session.

With regard to the Kihei high school overpass, he said the Department of Education expects to go forward with the necessary preliminary design work in anticipation of getting the requested funds next session.

He also mentioned his attempt to initiate both management and financial audits of the DLNR’s Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation (DOBOR). This measure, which he worked on in conjunction with Rep. Elle Cochran, failed to pass.

Discussing the recent grounding of a private yacht at the marine reserve at Honolua Bay, he commented that he intends to work on future legislation that will require insurance carriers to notify the state of these incidents, which would result in mandatory permit cancellations for offenders.

He briefly discussed his efforts to speed up the building of teacher rental housing near Lahainaluna High School on a strip of state owned land. This project has already been approved and is about to start construction, but has been plagued with delays. McKelvey was hopeful that current plans, which call for eight single-family homes, can be modified to allow for the construction of 16 duplex style townhomes.

As for his reaction to the Senate itself, he said, “The Senate is an entirely different creature (than the House), but I liked it a lot.” He appreciated its “supportive environment,” where he and Maui’s other state Senators Gil Keith-Agaran and Lynn DeCoite worked well together. McKelvey noted he was fortunate enough to be named to chair the Senate’s Government Operations Committee.

Like Rep. Cochran, who spoke with the Lahaina News last month, he too found the end of the session “confusing” and a “train wreck,” where everything was up in the air until the very last moment. He confirmed that certain legislation was voted on even though the members of the Conference Committee had never seen the final drafts.

Despite the irregularities and confusion, McKelvey thought that “all things considered, it was a pretty good outcome for Maui County.”