Excerpts of Rep. Lynn Finnegan's address to the Legislature yesterday:

Hawai'i Republican values such as opportunity, personal responsibility and accountability are woven throughout our package. These bills address six of our state's most important issues: cost of living, energy independence, safe and sober streets, education, ethics, and repair and maintenance of state facilities.

The first issue is our cost of living. Two basic areas are food and housing. We are focusing our tax-relief proposals on the elimination of taxes on food. We want to make it easier for families to put food on the table.

For homelessness and housing, we want to see a Hawai'i where every individual and family has a roof over their head. The reality is that it will take much more than just compassionate politicians. It will take compassion and an expectation of self-reliance and independence. Our goal is to take the comprehensive services of the homeless transition centers like Onelauena at Kalaeloa and duplicate them throughout all levels of government housing assistance such as public housing, Section 8, and affordable rentals.

The second issue is energy independence. Our sunshine, trade winds and ocean attract millions of visitors every year. These same attributes can provide for our energy needs and propel us to the forefront of energy independence in 10 years. Driven by the rising cost of oil, the opportunities for renewable energy have never been greater.

The third issue is safe and sober streets. We are dedicated to passing increased fines and penalties and an ignition interlock program for repeat DUI offenders to change attitudes and behaviors about driving under the influence and pedestrian safety.

The fourth issue is education. One of the missing pieces in public education is the lack of a management audit on the Department of Education. Some will shudder at the thought of a management audit. I asked a prominent business man what a management audit meant to him. He described it in one word, opportunity. It is an opportunity to identify something that your own eyes are unable to see. It is a method for quality improvement.

We will continue to support Hawai'i's public charter schools because they are good examples of school-level decision-making.

The next issue is ethics. A new ethics committee will be created in the state House with equal representation of both majority and minority members.

We will also be demanding change of the grant-in-aid process. The way our Legislature awards money to nonprofit organizations has recently been questioned. Over the last five years, the Legislature has appropriated $200 million in grants-in-aid. We support these appropriations; however, we need to have an open-book policy to the criteria and guidelines in which these nonprofits are chosen to ensure a fair outcome for all nonprofits. We invited Professor Danielle Conway-Jones, the director of the Hawai'i Procurement Institute and a respected expert in this field, to assist us with a GIA forum to explore ways to create good procedures. Hawai'i Procurement Institute was conceived with a vision to be a neutral, independent procurement think tank and education institute.

Finally, repairs and maintenance of state facilities has been a longtime problem. The members of our championship football team and network commentators pointed out the dilapidated athletic facilities, once again calling attention to the lack of maintenance of our state buildings. We have and will be appropriating millions of dollars to catch up on the long list of repairs and maintenance. But how did we get here in the first place? It has been decades of neglect. We need to look at ways to avoid this from happening again. We owe it to you to plan and prepare for repairs and maintenance of our state facilities with a holistic approach. We will be introducing a bill to do just that.

We also unanimously support medical tort reform, "Keeping doctors in Hawai'i" and the 2010 Constitutional Convention, "Trusting and believing in the people of Hawai'i."