Watchdog gives MN state government a ‘D-‘ for transparency, integrity

Alaska (C), California (C-) and Connecticut (C-) ranked first, second and third, and were the only states to score higher than D+ in the study that gave 11 states flunking grades based on a series of criteria measuring openness and accountability in government institutions and procedures. Franzese said that, with many states still struggling financially, ethics oversight in particular is among the last issues to receive funding. It also included questions about whether state governments adhere to “open data” principles, making public information available in digitally searchable form and following other accessibility standards; almost every state failed on that mark. And since the 2013 scandal of Virginia’s Gov. Robert McDonnell, where he was accused of accepting more than $170,000 in gifts, the newly-elected Gov. Terry McAuliffe has enacted legislation to dissuade corruption, including a $100 cap on gifts to public officials from people seeking state business.

But when it comes to integrity, according to a new report on the front page of Monday’s USA Today, we’re one of the worst. Frank is a part-time copy editor at the Courant. These key indicators fall into 13 categories, including public access to information, state budget processes, political financing, and ethics enforcement agencies.

Ethics reform was one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s top priorities when he took office, but the 2015 State Integrity Investigation suggests right now the state’s ethics reforms are mostly bark and very little bite. In fact, most scores have dropped since then, though a few of that is attributable to changes made to improve and update the project and its methodology. Ohio was dinged for not having compiled listings of public-records requests, any specific monitoring of compliance with public-records laws, and no law to publish data online in an open format.

States score well in several categories, with 29 earning a B- or better for auditing practices and 16 scoring a B- or above for budget transparency.

“While Ohio has many appropriate ethics rules and a strong Sunshine Law, there are simply too many loopholes”, Catherine Turcer, a veteran government watchdog with Common Cause-Ohio, said in the report. David Ramsey, a contributor to the Arkansas Times, was the commissioned journalist in Arkansas.