Open Government
Recommendation
Enforce current legislative rules and open the legislative process.
Background
Citizens' knowledge of the legislature
• According to a 2003 National Conference of State Legislatures report entitled "Citizenship," 72 percent of individuals over the age of 26 could name the party of their state governors. However, only one-third of this same group could identify the party in control of their legislature. This low number is the same percentage as would have existed if they had simply guessed.
• In a Civitas Institute poll in February of 2006, only 40 percent of respondents knew what party controlled the North Carolina Senate, and only 35 percent knew what party controlled the House.
• Most citizens simply do not know what is happening in the state legislature. For those legislators that believe in open government, it is clear that extra steps need to be taken to reach out to the public and let them know what is happening in Raleigh.
Two important overarching questions
• What rules will allow for better dissemination of information to the public?
• What rules will help the public know why decisions are being made? If there is a true deliberative process, the public likely will have more confidence in policymakers and the entire legislature.
How the Legislature Can Open the Legislative Process
Follow the rules. The first and most important rule of the legislature should be to follow its own rules. All presiding officers should have to follow and enforce the rules of the legislative body. Failure to do so should be an ethics violation.
Improve the procedural-related rules. Examples include:
• Roll-call votes should be required on all votes, including those in committees.
• The House and Senate ethics committees should review whether any meetings have taken place in violation of the state's open-meetings law.
• Committee substitute bills should be given to committee members at least two days in advance of a meeting.
• Any committee that issues a report should give committee members a chance to develop a dissenting report that will be disseminated with the main report.
Improve information dissemination. Examples include:
• As is done in South Carolina, the daily journal for both the House and Senate should be made available daily on the legislature's Web site.
• The audio of all meetings should be archived on the legislature's Web site.
• The majority and minority parties in the House and Senate should also have Web sites of their own that would be accessed easily from the legislature's Web site.
Improve budget-related rules. Examples include:
• The budget should contain only spending and tax items.
• There should be no discretionary legislative funds or funds in the executive branch that are subject to direction from any legislator.
• Once the budget is referred to the floor, there should be at least three days before consideration of the bill.
• Budget conference and committee meetings should be open to the public.
• All spending and taxing provisions should be itemized clearly in the text of the budget bill itself (and not explained in attachments such as committee reports).
Analyst: Daren Bakst, J.D., LL.M.
Legal and Regulatory Policy Analyst
919/828.3876 • dbakst-at-johnlocke.org
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