Recall earlier this summer when the Legislature passed its $43.7 million operating budget — as well as its latest spending plan to address the state’s K-12 education funding crisis — that was a 12 percent increase over the previous budget and included a major change to the state’s tax system.
The deals involved were negotiated behind closed doors and the resulting bills were released for public review less than a day before they had to be adopted and signed by the governor to avoid a partial government shutdown.
Were this any other state office or local government, news organizations — and even citizens — could have requested public records, such as emails, calendars and text messages, that led to the creation of that legislation in advance of its passage. Even if requested after adoption, the public records could have provided necessary insight into a public process that is of undeniable interest to any state resident and taxpayer.
News organizations did seek such documents earlier this summer, filing requests under the state Public Records Act with all 147 state lawmakers, seeking calendars and schedules that would have shown who legislators met with and how they spent their workdays. Except for a handful of lawmakers who complied with the requests, most punted the requests to lawyers who declined them citing a 1995 state law that they claim exempts them from complying.
Several state news organizations, including The Beachcomber’s parent company, Sound Publishing, are now suing the Legislature over its refusal to comply with public records requests. A lawsuit, filed last Tuesday in Thurston County Superior Court challenges the exemption that lawmakers are using to keep secret their daily schedules, emails, text messages and other documents related to their work.
As long as the state has had a Public Records Act, which was adopted through a citizens’ initiative in 1972 with 72 percent approval, news organizations and other advocates for open access to public records have pressed for lawmakers to include themselves under the act’s provisions. And while most states make similar exemptions for their state lawmakers, about 12 states, including Oregon and Idaho, expect their lawmakers to comply with public records law.
The necessity for that access is clear. State lawmakers ought to be held to the same standard that any other public official or local government is required to meet.
In the past, lawmakers have claimed that complying with the Public Records Act would be complicated and costly. But that’s not an excuse that they have allowed other public officials, agencies and governments to hide behind. The courts that hear this case should hold legislators to the same standard now.
— The original version of this editorial was written by the Everett Daily Herald editorial board and appeared in the Herald on Wednesday, Sept. 13.
