November 1, 2006
LOTS OF INTERESTING STUFF GOING ON IN TENNESSEE
There was an interesting editorial in the CA this morning. It had to do with open records laws for which the CA has been a leader in calling for tougher enforcement and penalties for refusal to open records. Naturally Tennessee City and County governments have opposed any tougher laws or enforcement. Here is what the CA said in part.
“But it doesn't explain why only 32 of more than 180 legislative candidates responded to a survey distributed by the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, designed to assist a committee that is evaluating the state's open meetings and open records laws.
Coalition director Frank Gibson told The Associated Press the response rate led him to wonder if candidates "might be concerned about getting in the middle of a fight between the press and local government."
Because of penalties being proposed for violating open government laws in Tennessee and other factors, local governments have objected to putting more teeth into laws that attempt to give the public more access to the government it pays for.
By February, the legislature hopes to have a set of committee findings that will help set a new course for open government.
That doesn't seem likely given the committee's late start -- delayed by the failure of Speaker of the House Jimmy Naifeh and Lt. Gov. John Wilder to make any appointments to the committee until October.
All of which may be due to the information turned up by a recent Mason-Dixon poll: Only 56 percent of Tennesseans think too much government business is secretive.
The fact is that the open meetings and records laws on the books in Tennessee are not being enforced vigorously and there are few drawbacks to ignoring them. “
Candidates for the legislature apparently would rather not hear about any of this, and most would rather not tell anyone what they think.”
Another interesting thing is on the ballot in Davidson County (Nashville) and that is a proposal to only allow increases in property taxes after approval in a referendum by the voters. Again the politicians and the election commission managed to confuse the issue as the article and video clips shown below report. Click below and follow the story which is fascinating. Ben Cunningham of the website http://tntaxrevolt.com is to be congratulated for his efforts in support of open government and fiscal responsibility.
video about property tax vote
article in tennessean newspaper
LOTS OF INTERESTING STUFF GOING ON IN TENNESSEE
There was an interesting editorial in the CA this morning. It had to do with open records laws for which the CA has been a leader in calling for tougher enforcement and penalties for refusal to open records. Naturally Tennessee City and County governments have opposed any tougher laws or enforcement. Here is what the CA said in part.
“But it doesn't explain why only 32 of more than 180 legislative candidates responded to a survey distributed by the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, designed to assist a committee that is evaluating the state's open meetings and open records laws.
Coalition director Frank Gibson told The Associated Press the response rate led him to wonder if candidates "might be concerned about getting in the middle of a fight between the press and local government."
Because of penalties being proposed for violating open government laws in Tennessee and other factors, local governments have objected to putting more teeth into laws that attempt to give the public more access to the government it pays for.
By February, the legislature hopes to have a set of committee findings that will help set a new course for open government.
That doesn't seem likely given the committee's late start -- delayed by the failure of Speaker of the House Jimmy Naifeh and Lt. Gov. John Wilder to make any appointments to the committee until October.
All of which may be due to the information turned up by a recent Mason-Dixon poll: Only 56 percent of Tennesseans think too much government business is secretive.
The fact is that the open meetings and records laws on the books in Tennessee are not being enforced vigorously and there are few drawbacks to ignoring them. “
Candidates for the legislature apparently would rather not hear about any of this, and most would rather not tell anyone what they think.”
Another interesting thing is on the ballot in Davidson County (Nashville) and that is a proposal to only allow increases in property taxes after approval in a referendum by the voters. Again the politicians and the election commission managed to confuse the issue as the article and video clips shown below report. Click below and follow the story which is fascinating. Ben Cunningham of the website http://tntaxrevolt.com is to be congratulated for his efforts in support of open government and fiscal responsibility.
video about property tax vote
article in tennessean newspaper
posted by watchdog at
11:43 AM
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