It’s not often that I feel genuine disgust – the kind that curdles in my mouth.
This is one of those times.
Certain Democrat legislators in Maine (no doubt backed by the state employees union) apparently think government and those employed by government are a secret society, working in the shadows and unaccountable to the citizens.
Just ask the following legislators, all Democrats:
Assistant Senate Democratic Leader Lisa Marrache (Waterville)
Senate President Elizabeth Mitchell (Vassalboro)
Senator Lawrence Bliss (South Portland)
Senator Peter Bowman (Kittery)
Senator Deborah Simpson (Auburn)
Rep. Anna Blodgett (Augusta)
Rep. Mark Bryant (Windham)
Rep. Patsy Crockett (Augusta)
Rep. Nancy Smith (Monmouth)
They’ve just sponsored LD 1353 “An Act Regarding Salary Information for Public Employees” which would prevent the posting of the salary and benefit information of named state and school district employees. While the postion could be listed, the employees’ names could not be.
The bill is in direct response to the open government web site MaineOpenGov recently launched by The Maine Heritage Policy Center (MHPC), a non-profit, non-partisan research and education organization in Portland.
The site compiles public information including salary, benefits and vendor payments funded by Maine tax dollars. As a result of the added government transparency created by the site, MHPC received the Sunshine Award from the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition.
But transparency and accountability are bad things for Democrat Party leaders. As noted by Tarren Bragdon, CEO of MHPC:
This bill would make Maine government the most secretive in the country. Maine people have a right to and want this detailed salary information. Since we launched MaineOpenGov.org on September 24, 2008 and listed online 90,000 people on a Maine public payroll, more than 46,000 individuals have conducted 374,000 searches and spent 6,900 hours on the site. This bill is an effort to shut down our MaineOpenGov.org and keep Maine taxpayers in the dark.
It is unheard of for elected officials in state government to be so blatant in their attempts to conceal public information from their constituents. When the Senate President and other leaders of the legislature push this type of government secrecy you start to wonder who they are holding themselves accountable to, because it certainly isn’t the citizens of Maine.
It’s not often that you see something as ‘in-your-face’ as this.
Pardon me while I spit.
