Well, you learn something new every day.
Who knew that the governor is not subject to the public records law?
Governor Deval Patrick – an employee of the taxpayers of
Massachusetts – very publicly announced on January 18 that he was
asking his department heads – also employees of the taxpayers – to
submit suggestions for savings in their taxpayer-funded budgets.
On the date of their deadline, the State House News Service asked
for copies of those suggestions, and was refused. On January
31, Citizens for Limited Taxation mailed a
public records request to
the Governor. Today we received a refusal to share the public
information. Is there something there to hide?
A copy of that refusal
is available on
our website.
We were referred to a Supreme Judicial Court decision, “Lambert v.
Executive Director of the Judicial Nominating Council,” which the
governor claims exempts the Office of the Governor from the public
records law.
It is true that things relating to the judiciary are not subject to
the public records law. The governor’s office seems to be
extending that decision to apply to ALL activities of the governor’s
office. Nice try.
We beg to differ from this overly broad interpretation, and will be
filing an appeal with the Office of Public Records. With
discussion of a billion dollar deficit, and the governor stating on
the Eagan-Braude radio program (WTKK-FM 96.9) that the commonwealth
will need more revenue, we think it is vital that the public be
given all information necessary to help the governor, who invited us
all to participate in his open administration.