Laning Statement on Assembly Democrats’ Open Government Proposals
Madison – Martha Laning, Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, released the following statement regarding the Assembly Democrats’ open government proposals:
“Democrats are committed to protecting Wisconsin’s strong tradition of open government and making sure the public and the press have access to the information they need. Wisconsin citizens have a right to expect that their government is transparent and the proposals released today by the Assembly Democrats enhance our state’s long tradition of leading the way on open government.
The latest Marquette Law School poll out today shows how fed up Wisconsin residents are with the direction Governor Walker and the Republican Legislature have taken our state over the last few years. Governor Walker’s approval rating has plummeted down to 37 percent.
Republicans have repeatedly attacked our open records system and they won’t give up until they shut the public and the press out of policy decisions for our state. They want to decide how much information the press and the public gets to see and when they get to see it.
When Republicans got caught trying to gut the open records laws in the budget, they retreated to a backroom to quietly work on another bill that would allow them to deny the press information. When they got caught doing that, they decided it was time to change the civil service hiring system to allow them to put their political friends into jobs at every state agency so their hand-picked cronies can simply deny open records requests.
The public spoke loud and clear during the budget this year. They support our open records system and today Democrats took action to protect transparency. The proposals outlined today will strengthen our tradition of open government by putting those protections in our constitution so future generations will never have to worry about a corrupt government shutting the door in their face when they ask for information.”
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