Richard Wiens

The Legislature and even the Supreme Court stand in the way of allowing citizens to decide issues.

The Maui lawmaker who lost his own home in the 2023 fires is also leading some government reform efforts.

House leaders didn’t bother to explain their decision to kill a measure that inspired hundreds of testifiers. But the Senate isn’t giving up.

Both the House speaker and Senate president have introduced bills to keep the Legislature meeting at least some of the time 12 months a year.

Lawmakers have proposed hundreds of government and political reform bills this year, building on the momentum from federal bribery convictions in 2023.

Public financing of campaigns will be on the legislative agenda again this session along with pay-to-play practices and tweaks to the Sunshine Law. But as usual, the outlook is murky.

Covid-19 closures inspired a huge improvement in public access with livestreaming, video archiving and remote testimony.

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