MA Senate Votes Unanimously for Govt. Transparency Reform

Senate Passes Strong Government Transparency Bill - 35-0.

Today, the Massachusetts Senate unanimously (35-0) passed a strong bill to fix our broken public records law, An Act to Improve Access to Public Records, S.2120. The bill is significantly stronger than the House passed version in November.       

The Senate passed a very strong government transparency bill and should be commended for their leadership. We now need to prevent any weakening of the bill as the differences between the House and Senate bills are worked out in a six person conference committee.

Transparency in government is the cornerstone to a strong democracy. Government transparency checks corruption, promotes fiscal responsibility and efficiency, and allows for greater, more meaningful participation in our democratic system. “

In November, the Center for Public Integrity released a report that gave the commonwealth an F grade on public access to government information for the second time in a row.

Organizations, reporters, watchdogs, and regular citizens who wish to see and review public documents are frequently unable to do so, prevented by outright denials, excessive charges, records in useless formats, and long delays in which the requested records never materialize or do so in an untimely manner. The public records law hasn’t been substantially updated since 1973. 

The Senate bill gives courts the ability to enforce the law by awarding attorney fees to those wrongly denied access to public records, bringing Massachusetts in line with forty-seven other states. It sets strict limits on how much government agencies can charge for public record information, and sets reasonable time-frames for responses to public records requests. 

The bill does not alter the scope of the public records law or make any changes to existing exemptions. Rather it modernizes outmoded language in the law and strengthens procedures for compliance and enforcement.  

 

Authors

Deirdre Cummings

Legislative Director, MASSPIRG

Deirdre runs MASSPIRG’s public health, consumer protection and tax and budget programs. Deirdre has led campaigns to improve public records law and require all state spending to be transparent and available on an easy-to-use website, close $400 million in corporate tax loopholes, protect the state’s retail sales laws to reduce overcharges and preserve price disclosures, reduce costs of health insurance and prescription drugs, and more. Deirdre also oversees a Consumer Action Center in Weymouth, Mass., which has mediated 17,000 complaints and returned $4 million to Massachusetts consumers since 1989. Deirdre currently resides in Maynard, Mass., with her family. Over the years she has visited all but one of the state's 351 towns — Gosnold.