Republicans vote to dramatically scale back oversight of lawmakers, other public officials
Legislative Republicans on Thursday passed sweeping changes to the state’s open records law that would dramatically curtail the kind of information available to the public about the work that public officials do.
The proposal blocks the public from reviewing nearly all records created by lawmakers, state and local officials or their aides, including electronic communications and the drafting files of legislation. The language was included in the final version of the state’s 2015-17 budget, which passed the Legislature’s budget committee on a party-line vote late Thursday. The budget bill next goes to the full Assembly and Senate.
“This is the single most sweeping and outrageous affront to Wisconsin’s tradition of open government that I have seen in my quarter-century of involvement with the (Wisconsin) Freedom of Information Council,” council president Bill Lueders said.
One provision creating a broad “legislator disclosure privilege” has no counterpart in any other state, a spokesperson for the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau testified.
more
http://m.host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/republicans-seek-to-drastically-diminish-public-scrutiny-of-lawmakers/article_8901f2df-1ec2-5e74-b6ea-4a1f006aacf5.html?mobile_touch=true
= new reply since forum marked as read
