Sunshine Review

68 agencies in Washington fail to disclose lobbying

Share The Evergreen Freedom Foundation found that 68 agencies in Washington had failed to disclose taxpayer-funded lobbying. The Transit Authority was one of the worst offenders and has’t complied with transparency laws by failing to report its lobbying activity for seven years, amounting to to $800,000 in spending.  Read More →

Who lobbies Cook County? More importantly: who does Cook County lobby?

Share We give Cook County in Illinois a B- on the information it discloses on its website. Which is a decent grade. One of the check marks the county misses on our checklist is for “Lobbying.” The county does not disclose on its website what lobbying organizations it pays dues to, or what lobbyists it hires to represent the county before... [Read more of this review]

New law exempts SEC from FOIA

Share A provision by the newly signed financial-reform bill has exempted the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from disclosing information to the public, even under the Freedom of Information Act. According for Fox Business: The law, signed last week by President Obama, exempts the SEC from disclosing records or information derived from “surveillance,... [Read more of this review]

Citizens work wonders with information on their side… when they aren’t being kicked out of public meetings

Share What can citizens do once they have government information? In Bell, California, three senior city officials were making lavish salaries. The Chief Administrative Officer, Robert Rizzo, was making $787,637 for running the city of less than 40,0000. When citizens found out, they were rightfully outraged and their anger translated into the resignation... [Read more of this review]

State budget crises won’t disappear

Share The most recent reports by State Budget Solutions (SBS) state the average state debt per private sector worker is $17,000, with the aggregate state debt exceeding $1.8 trillion. That is $1,800,000,000,000. The biggest problem-states include Alabama, California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. SBS offers and continues to... [Read more of this review]

Michigan budget shortfalls: could transparency help?

Share Michigan’s constitution requires that the state government operate with a balanced budget. But Michigan legislators returned from a two week break without a plan on how to address the state’s more than $300 million budget shortfall for the current year. Governor Jennifer Granholm (D) is seemingly waiting for Congress to revive a measure... [Read more of this review]

Rep. Murphy proposes the OK Legislature open up its records & meetings

Share When Oklahoma drafted its Open Records and Open Meetings Acts, it exempted itself from the laws. The only thing the Legislature has to disclose is what monies are being spent, but any other correspondence in the legislature remains confidential. “It’s kind of interesting to me that we promulgate rules on every other agency to be open... [Read more of this review]

Maryland School Districts Score “C” on Transparency Test

Share Alexandria, VA— Maryland school districts earned an overall “C” for information available on their websites according to an analysis conducted by Sunshine Review, a pro-transparency group. The analysis found that Howard County Public Schools earned a perfect score; Frederick and Montgomery County Schools received the only other... [Read more of this review]

The deliberative process exemption of FOIA

Share One exemption to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is the deliberative process exemption. Matter relating to the “deliberative processes” of government can be exempt from public records disclosure. Deliberative processes include opinions or recommendations in the course of making decisions that apply to official government functions... [Read more of this review]

Exorbitant salaries trigger protests in California

Share Yesterday, we discussed that California has the largest state budget shortfall in the US, topping at $41.6 billion dollars. Solutions are still being discussed after the Governor’s proposal to cut public employee wages was overruled by a judge. Well, it turns out there are a few salaries for California public employees which being drastically... [Read more of this review]

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