Joe Bruno's Transparency Trick Foiled By Empire Center

I read this little gem last night by E.J. McMahon that shows with a little hard work, you can do an end-run around politicians that try to deceive the public they are supposed to be serving. The Times article yesterday featuring Joe Bruno was amusing in that his responses were so blatantly smug and arrogant. The irony of the piece is not to be missed, especially with Bruno's long history of doing things in secret and kept away from every New Yorker outside his office. Here is McMahon's reply to Bruno's phony attempt at making government more open and accountable.

From The Empire Center:

Today's New York Times profile of the ex-leader (here) highlights the irony that Bruno, who had to be sued before he would release details of pork-barrel expenditures during his last term, is now "preaching the virtues of smaller, leaner, more accountable government" in his new role as chief executive of an infotech and software consulting firm. And it recounts the following:

Mr. Bruno, for example, was the first Senate leader to require the release of every internal expenditure made by the Senate.

But those reports are published only every six months, in a book format that makes it extremely difficult to examine the spending in any systematic way. (Asked about it, Mr. Bruno joked, "You noticed that, huh?")

Well, here at the Empire Center, we sure noticed. To penetrate the Legislature's deliberate opacity, we translated all the Senate and Assembly expenditure reports into searchable databases at www.SeeThroughNY.net.

Memo to Times reporter Nick Confessore: you'll find those reports at this page.

Memo to former Senator Bruno: nice try.

Nice try indeed Mr. Bruno. Joe may not realize, but the age of the internet is a beautiful thing. Transparency and accountability will come to Albany, whether crooked politicians such as Bruno like it or not. Now let's see Confessore publish those reports in the Times. I for one will be anxiously waiting to see them for all to see.