![]() ![]() How many billions of dollars could we have saved if we’d had open windows to crony contracts and backroom dealings? A pair of Texas Supreme Court rulings in 2015 made state contracts much less transparent. Watson and Capriglione want to bring into the sunlight state contracts and other information involving private vendors. Giovanni Capriglione of Southlake are proposing bills to re-open some of Texas government’s darkened vaults. Kirk Watson of Austin and Republican Rep. How bad is the problem of secret government? Here in the Texas Legislature, not known the last few years for its bipartisan accomplishments, Democratic state Sen. Yes, you are forced to make up some of that loss with higher property taxes. The result: poor management of the trust fund costs the state’s public schools billions of dollars. For instance, as the Houston Chronicle recently reported, the School Land Board and the State Board of Education, which manage Texas’ Permanent School Fund, are so secretive they seldom share their work with one another. The external consequences of all this very-little-happening behind closed doors, however, can be very great. All one needs for that is a door lock, not a necessary secret or even a good idea to toss around an exclusive chamber. Very little happens behind the closed doors of governments, since, as noted, they are really all about affirming the status of those included and excluded. Having been a legislative staffer who not so many years ago attended a few secret governmental meetings, I’m pleased to inform you that most of them, most of the time, are empty exercises. Status goes down when one is excluded.Ī government’s secret chambers are like airline’s first-class cabins, and democracies should not have first-class cabins. Status goes up when one is allowed into the secret chambers. Most secret meetings and secret documents have more to do with enhancing the status of the secret-keepers and less to do with serving the public interest. ![]() Since the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals late last month ruled that part of the Texas Open Meetings Law is “unconstitutionally vague,” it seems important to be direct. We can grant limited exceptions for national security and privacy protections of individuals (discussion of unverified accusations, for instance). There are no reasons governmental executive or legislative bodies at any level should meet in secret or hide documents from the public. This article originally appeared in the Austin American-Statesman.
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