Cuomo And DiNapoli Honored For Transparency Work

New York can be a corrupt and backroom-dealing state when it comes to politics. Of course, there are plenty of politicians that make that reality happen, but there are a few, or should I say a couple good ones that stand out among the rest. Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and AG Andrew Cuomo have shown to the public that they care about transparent government and the Empire Center is rewarding them for their good deeds.

From The Empire Center:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT: Lise Bang-Jensen

(518) 434-3100

Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo and Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli are being honored with the 2008 SeeThroughNY Award for Promoting Transparency in Government, the Empire Center for New York State Policy announced today.

The award recognizes their innovative web sites that make public information more accessible to New Yorkers. Each is receiving a plaque topped by a transparent piggy bank, the logo of SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s transparency web site.

In January, Cuomo unveiled Project Sunlight, New York State government’s first transparency web site. Project Sunlight offers easily accessible information about elected officials, campaign finance, lobbyists, legislative member items and registered corporations and charities.

In June, DiNapoli released Open Book New York, which contains spending information for 3,100 local governments and more than 100 state agencies. The site also offers an inventory of more than 60,000 active state contacts. All the available data can be loaded into a PDF file or an Excel spreadsheet.

“With Project Sunlight and Open Book New York, Attorney General Cuomo and Comptroller DiNapoli have taken noteworthy steps toward making public information more accessible. Their sites wet the public’s appetite for further government transparency, which they promise in future phases of the sites,” said Lise Bang-Jensen, senior policy analyst for the Empire Center.

New York has been notorious for hiding information from the public in years past. Just ask Joe Bruno how he feels about it. In our increasingly web-based world, it should be easy to put out information that holds our leaders accountable. Yet many would rather conduct the people's business in private. Sites like Open Book NY and Project Sunlight combat that secretiveness and they are rightly commended for that work.

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.