Excerpts of Sen. Fred Hemmings' address to the Legislature yesterday:

Senate Republicans believe we should focus this session on three initiatives — the family, the economy, and the environment.

The foundation of healthy and vibrant nations exists within families. We have created a package of legislation that will care for our aging seniors and the most vulnerable amongst us, the sick and the poor, thereby strengthening Hawai'i's families. We have not abandoned our quest to eliminate the regressive tax on food and medical care. We are calling for a substantial rebate of the tax surplus to be distributed to each man, woman, and child in the state; not the token $1 of years gone by. Price gouging at the gas pump by government must cease. That is why we are joining the governor in calling for a continued waiver of the excise tax on gasoline.

Continued commitment to community safety and protecting our families from the criminal element is most important. We passed legislation that will put three-time violent offenders in prison. We would like to continue our commitment to community safety by establishing mandatory minimum sentences for crimes committed against children and families.

We believe that charter schools are part of the success story the state so desperately needs in the realm of education. With that in mind, we are providing legislation that will create a charter school for autistic children.

We have drafted legislation that will create maritime and space-launch and technology-enterprise zones. These enterprise zones will provide for streamlined permitting and tax credits for revenue-producing businesses. It's no secret that our island state has less recreational mooring space than most other states in the nation, incredibly including those states that are landlocked. Our small harbors for the most part are in the doldrums. The southeast flank of the Big Island remains the most ideal place in the world for equatorial and polar launches. The Big Island should be our planet's gateway to the stars. Let us make our small boat harbors vibrant and launch Hawai'i into the 21st century with space industries.

There is a growing concern in the resident community in Hawai'i about the carrying capacity of the visitor industry. Recent polls indicated that approximately 80 percent of our citizens agree that 7.5 million tourists a year are enough.

Problems range from user conflicts in our natural areas to excessive property tax increases in residential neighborhoods due to illegal transient accommodations, all which cause much consternation with our neighbors and friends.

We are introducing legislation that will stabilize the number of visitor accommodations from hotel rooms to bed-and-breakfast operations statewide. Each visitor accommodation will have to have a license, with a finite number of licenses being issued.

Energy independence is so important both environmentally and geopolitically. Most visionaries see the world's ground transportation being propelled by hydrogen. The private sector is producing hydrogen cars, and the only service station currently available on the island of O'ahu is located on a military base. We propose legislation to create at least four public service stations by 2010. There is no doubt that Hawai'i's abundant renewable energies, such as wind, solar, ocean and geothermal, can be utilized to produce hydrogen in an environmentally friendly economy.

It is my prayer that some day 20, 30 or more years from now, future leaders are not once again calling for energy independence, a diversified economy, better education and all the other solutions that should have been instituted long ago. I would suggest that leadership includes the courage to be bold, possess the wisdom to be innovative, and has the vision to lead.