Transparency can save more than money in West Virginia

It’s easy to see some of the benefits of government transparency. Of course, sunshine is the best disinfectant when it comes to corruption, as Louisiana Senator Robert Adley noted in a topic we covered yesterday, Governor Bobby Jindal’s mixed transparency record. It is also a great solution for budgetary problems: public scrutiny is a great way to filter out the state spending we need, from the state spending we need

Today in the Huffington Post, however, the implications of a lack of transparency can be deadlier. The article details how the mine inspector’s notes, released in an attempt to give answers to a citezenry still rocked by the recent explosion that killed 29 miners at a Massey Energy mine in West Virginia.

The Post goes on to critique the government for not releasing those notes until after people died. Had they been, journalists would have picked up on the history of shoddy standards and fines the mine had to pay as fines for breaking rules.

It is never too late to start opening up government. Sunshine Review’s evaluation of West Virginia county website shows that West Virginia deserves increased attention in matters of transparency. An overwhelming amount of items we check for in our transparency checklist are marked with a red “x”, indicating that the government has failed to disclose a key piece of information.

Of course, this seems like a meaningless step when compared with the type of information that was left private in the West Virginia case. But having more open websites would show West Virginia citizens that their governments are ready to collaborate.