From Sunshine Review…
Platform and model legislation endorsed by leading state legislators
Sunshine Review, the nation’s leading state and local government transparency advocate, launched SunshineStandard.org, an online platform for legislators and activists that will act as the national guide for launching reforms to expand the information available on state and local government web sites so that Americans may better hold elected officials accountable.
“Most state and local governments do not embrace transparency,” said Mike Barnhart, President of Sunshine Review. “Even fewer proactively share information.” Transparency exists largely at the munificence of officials, with the burden of negotiating complex and costly FOIA petitions resting squarely on the shoulders of citizens and journalists.
Barnhart stressed that “state and local governments, and school districts, have an affirmative obligation to transparency reforms that proactively share the information people need to hold officials accountable for how tax money is spent and how the people’s business is conducted. We must set the bar for state and local government transparency. Sunshine Standard is a guide to these reforms being implemented across the country.”
The Sunshine Standard online platform hosts tools for activists and model legislation that can be introduced and adapted by legislators and elected officials for state and local government transparency. The Sunshine Standard model transparency legislation was endorsed by the nation’s leading state legislators at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Annual Conference earlier this year.
For more information visit www.SunshineStandard.org
Sunshine Review is a non-profit organization dedicated to state and local government transparency. The Sunshine Review wiki collects and shares transparency information and uses a “10-point Transparency Checklist” to evaluate the content of every state and more than 5,000 local government websites. Sunshine Review collaborates with individuals and organizations throughout America in the cause of an informed citizenry and an accountable government. Learn more by visiting www.SunshineStandard.org.