One step forward: The Sunshine Blog was happy to see the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday approve the main pay-to-play bill that has been so hard to get across the finish line. This is the one that bans officers of companies that have state or county contracts and their immediate family members from contributing to political campaigns. Same thing for organizations that get grants from the state or county.

The bill, which has been requested by the Hawaiʻi Campaign Spending Commission for a couple years now, is one of those that is popular with the public but keeps getting gutted or tabled by legislative leaders, as happened last session at the last minute. In fact Senate Bill 2530 had 30 supporters on Tuesday and zero in opposition.

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Senate Judiciary Chair Karl Rhoads amended the bill a bit before passing it out, including adding a requirement that the names of contractors, grantees and their family members be included in a database for the commission but that it not be made public. Rhoads also wants to ensure the bill only applies to contractors and grantees going forward and not those with contracts already in place.

Sen. Joy San Buenaventura was concerned that the measure is unfair to family members who would be restricted on their contributions and voted with reservations to move it along.

SB 2530 is competing against House Bill 1519, which cleared the House Judiciary Committee last week. That measure is pretty different than the one sought by the Campaign Spending Commission, including taking county contractors out of the bill. The Blog reported on that bill in Sunday’s edition.

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday also supported a bill backed by the Hawaiʻi State Ethics Commission that would require people nominated by the governor to positions requiring Senate confirmation to file their personal financial disclosures before the confirmation hearing. Now the public sometimes doesn’t see the disclosures until long after they are in office due to the timing of when the reports are due and when the job begins.

With internal deadlines to hear and pass bills quickly approaching, many sunshine bills are moving along. On hold for the moment, though, is House Bill 1552. It would allow for the Hawaiʻi attorney general to certify state elections, if for some reason the chief election officer position is vacant come election time.

It’s a real possibility, as seen in the persistent effort by “election integrity” types to persuade the Hawaiʻi Elections Office to fire Scott Nago. David Tarnas, chair of the House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, still thinks HB 1552 is a good idea, but he heeded advice from the Attorney General’s Office that said having an AG in charge of elections could be a conflict of interest. What if the Elections Office gets sued, for example? The AG is the state’s lawyer.

Tarnas deferred HB 1552 for now but said he might revive it if a solution can be found to the potential conflict. He also said he would keep an eye on the Senate companion to the measure, which currently awaits the attention of Karl Rhoads, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Both bills have but a single referral, meaning there is plenty of time to amend the language and get it over to the other chamber without having to go through those meddlesome money committees.

Will DBEDT become DHEDT?: Last year the Legislature renamed the Department of Agriculture the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity to emphasize its kuleana to control all those invasive species. DOA became DAB, requiring name changes to websites, letterhead, business cards and more.

On Wednesday, two Senate committees advanced a bill to rename the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism as the Department of Housing, Economic Development and Tourism. The reason: to place “greater weight” on housing policy, according to the bill.

That means DBEDT (pronounced DEE-bed) could become DHEDT. The Blog is guessing it would be pronounced DEE-head, but who knows?

DBEDT has no objections, though, noting in its testimony that its priorities “are already in alignment” with the state’s housing policy goals “and the dedicated development of housing for individuals and families across all income levels.”

Attached agencies to DBEDT already include the Hawai‘i Housing Finance and Development Corp. (an unpronounceable acronym), the Hawai‘i Community Development Authority (HCDA rolls quite easily off the tongue) and the Office of Sustainable Development (nobody knows what they do).

Coconut wireless: The Hawaiʻi State Archives, part of the Department of Accounting and General Services, has digitized 92.3 KSSK-FM’s “Perry & Price Show,” which aired six days a week for 33 years. The tapes, donated by iHeartMedia, start in 1990 and end in 2009.

Host Michael W. Perry and “Coach” Larry Price, along with sidekick and show producer Sweetie Pacarro, were fixtures for local radio consumers for decades. Guests included every state governor and most county mayors, local celebrities and national stars like Oprah Winfrey, Kenny Loggins, James Ingram, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Kristi Yamaguchi.

Because KSSK is an emergency broadcasting station, many locals also turned to Perry & Price during power outages, tsunamis, hurricanes and other disasters, Hawaiʻi State Archives Administrator Adam Jansen said in a press release. Click here for more details.

Ethics by the numbers: The Hawaiʻi State Ethics Commission has released its 2025 Annual Report, and executive director and general counsel Robert Harris is touting some of the highlights. For instance, 90% of all state employees and nearly all board and commission members have completed mandatory ethics training.

But not all is hunky-dory. “Public confidence in government remains fragile, both nationally and locally. In this environment, ethics compliance cannot be viewed as a technical obligation or a box-checking exercise,” said Harris.

You can read the full report yourself. It’s not long and it’s chock-full of colorful and easy-to-understand charts and tables — like this one: