It’s Sunshine Week!

We’ll get Sunshine Week started right, with our very own executive director writing in the Washington Examiner about how transparency gives people power to make government work for them, and how Sunshine Week is the time to get started:

State and local governments today face unprecedented fiscal challenges and unprecedented opportunities for fundamental reforms. In the coming weeks and months, citizens can forge truly historic change in state and local government by reforming the budget process, privatizing services, and returning professional full-time legislatures and councils to more traditional part-time bodies, among many other worthy initiatives.

Read about that here.

What is Sunshine Week? As Kansas Watchdog notes, Sunshine Week marks an annual effort to focus attention on the importance of government transparency, with print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, school and other open government advocates participating. For example, Open Secrets is participating.

Sunshine Week is already proving worthwhile. For example, the Sunshine Project announced late last week attempts a statewide transparency effort.

We look forward to seeing what other government efforts to be open pop up this week. Spring is the perfect time for sun.

Sunshine Week, Volume 2

Here is more Sunshine Week shenanigans:

* Oklahoma - Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs updated their study to show the real costs of education, using standard accounting practices. A study of FY2007 found that taxpayers spent more than $6.5 billion on Oklahoma’s public education system, or $10,942 per pupil. This kind of study is necessary because of the OK Education Association’s initiative to base per-pupil spending on an average of its neighboring states. Real numbers are necessary to give voters correct information on how much of their money is going towards schools. (H/T Edmond Sun)

* Louisiana - The Advertiser pointed out examples of abuses of the Freedom of Information Act and open meetings laws. The editorial ended with this: “We hope that Sunshine Week encourages an ongoing effort to ensure information about how tax dollars are used by government is always accessible and that the public’s business is always conducted in public.” The Advocate also opined for more sunshine.

More again tomorrow.

Sunshine Week in the States, Volume 1

Well, kids, it’s Sunshine Week, which means every news outlet is putting a spotlight on transparency. Here’s a little round-up mix of preachy editorials, investigative work, and updates on what some of my fellow groups are doing to open up this musty government of ours.

* Minnesota- The Minnesota Freedom Foundation wrote an op-ed printed in the Duluth News Tribune that praised work to build a statewide transparency database, but pointed out some very disturbing trends. These concerns include groups circumventing open meetings laws by hosting “workshops”, restricting or banning coverage of the legislature by old and new media outlets, withholding draft documents (including budgets) from the public, and banning citizens from recording government meetings.

* Michigan - Attorney General Mike Cox hosted an hour-long presentation on the Freedom of Information Act and the Open Meetings Act. He said when there is less money to go around, people want to make sure it is being spent wisely.

* Maryland - Marta Mossburg from the DCexaminer.com wrote about some ideas for greater local transparency.

* Mississippi - The Laurel Leader-Call highlighted a few important transparency activists throughout the country, including the creator of WikiFOIA, which is now a portal on Sunshine Review.

More of these tomorrow.

OFRG works for greater transparency

The Oklahoman printed an op-ed by Brian Downs from Oklahomans for Responsible Government that advocated greater transparency at both the state and local government. They even cited SunshineReview.org, which sets a standard level of transparency for government websites.

Right now, Oklahoma posts much of its spending online through the Office of State Finance. But according to the Web site SunshineReview.org, Oklahoma lacks two of the six criteria for evaluating spending Web sites: contracts and line-item expenditures. Missouri is the only state that meets all six criteria. Oklahoma lawmakers should push to make our state a leader in transparency.

On the local level, Oklahoma falls behind most states in even the lowest forms of transparency. Of the state’s 77 counties, 48 have no Web site at all. Of those that do, only Payne and Rogers counties have their full budgets posted online. Clearly more needs to be done to make local governments more transparent.

In difficult economic times, transparency is an easy answer to make sure taxpayers are getting enough bang for their buck. Groups like Oklahomans for Responsible Government, Americans for Prosperity-OK, and Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs are doing their part to remind government officials of that priority.

Related: Check out Oklahoma’s Open Books website.