the official blog of the evergreen freedom foundation

Government accountability was a casualty in this year's budget crisis. The legislature, which was frequently criticized this session for its lack of transparency, had a final flip of the bird for the public.

 

The legislature's operating budget cut the funding for the Attorney General's Public Records Exemptions Accountability Committee (also known as the "Sunshine Committee"), which makes recommendations to the legislature for making government more open. There was talk in the legislature of eliminating the committee altogether, but they settled on a funding cut. The budget eliminated $11,000 that had been budgeted for the committee's 2011 operations.  Janelle Guthrie, the AG's communications director, told me the AG's office will cover the costs from other parts of its budget.

 

UPDATE: While the legislature says it cut funds for the Sunshine Committee in the budget summary linked above, there's no detail for this in the actual budget bill. So the Sunshine Committee will continue to operate with AG funds, but the legislature gets the "credit" for gutting its budget.