Doesn't make sense to live in paradise and stress over commutes

By Sen. Mike Gabbard

A pilot project in the state Department of Human Resources Development for a four-day work week? It's about time. This makes perfect sense as our soaring gas prices and traffic congestion take their toll on everyone in Hawai'i. It's a good first step in getting people off our roads and allowing them to spend more time with their families. But we can do much more.

In 2006, Sperling's Best Places ranked Honolulu eighth in the nation among medium-sized metropolitan areas for the potential benefits that teleworking could offer our residents. Teleworking frees up government and private-sector employees to work from home or whatever location they choose. Studies have shown that teleworking decreases traffic, improves people's health and well-being, increases productivity and allows people to spend more quality time with their families.

We've looked at this issue before, but our past efforts have been inconsistent and short-lived. In 1988, the state of Hawai'i conducted a month-long staggered work hours project, directed at reducing rush-hour traffic by having employees report to work at 8:30 a.m. instead of 7:45 a.m. Roughly 4,700 state workers, 1,430 city workers, and 18 private businesses participated in the demonstration project. The pilot shaved 10 percent off their work travel times.

In 1989, the state Department of Transportation was the lead agency in the telework center demonstration project, a public/private partnership designed to reduce traffic congestion by encouraging state, county and private-sector employees to telework at a Mililani Tech Park center. At the end of the first year, 24 employees were working at the telework center.

When I took office as a state senator in November 2006, I started researching whether we could improve our quality of life by encouraging government and businesses to allow their employees to work from home. For almost 20 years, Arizona has been a leader in teleworking. They have an office dedicated to fulfilling a state mandate that requires all of their departments to participate in a telework program. As of 2007, they have achieved their goal of having 20 percent (4,300 employees) of their workforce teleworking. Arizona estimates that their efforts have reduced greenhouse gases by 175,000 pounds and drive times by 181,000 hours.

So in 2007, my office consulted with experts in Arizona to craft Senate Bill 698. My bill would have directed the DOT to be the lead agency in coordinating and implementing a one-year pilot workplace flexibility program for state employees. It would have required that four state agencies have, at a minimum, 10 percent of their workforce choose a workplace flexibility option, including telework, compressed work weeks (four 10-hour work days or nine days on and one day off), or adjusted work schedules (flextime).

Georgia has also been a leader by becoming in 2007 the first state in the nation to offer private employers a telework tax credit. I borrowed their vision in authoring a second bill, Senate Bill 2238, introduced this past session, which would have established a telework tax credit. The bill would have provided employers with up to $20,000 in tax credits for start-up costs associated with setting up a telework program and $1,200 per teleworker.

Virginia, another leader in telework, is offering a reimbursement of up to $35,000 for businesses to get their telework programs off the ground and up to $3,500 for each teleworker.

A group that gives work-at-home advice, Undress4Success.com, has put together some interesting statistics that show only 4.3 percent of Hawai'i residents work from home.

Using government data from the Environmental Protection Agency, the federal Department of Transportation, the U.S. Census and several other sources, Undress4Success.com finds that another 36 percent of Hawai'i residents have jobs conducive to working at home. They estimate that an average Hawai'i worker could save 231 gallons of gas annually and have $1,009 more in his or her pocket. They also estimate that we would be able to save 55 million gallons of gas each year.

It doesn't make sense to be living in paradise but always stressed out about spending all our time in our cars. In the coming months, I'll be talking to people and working with my colleagues at the Capitol on ideas for legislation for 2009. I'm convinced that the time is now for Hawai'i to become a telework leader.

State Sen. Mike Gabbard, D-19th (Kapolei, Makakilo, Waikele), wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.

Please contact me if I can help you. My phone is 586-6830 and e-mail is sengabbard@capitol.hawaii.gov. Mahalo for the privilege of serving you!