Photo by Kevin Steinhardt/flickr.com
When the Legislature took its first baby steps into webcasting earlier this year, many lawmakers had fears like these:
• Will this video be used against me during an election year if I say something stupid?
• But I don’t want my constituents to see me sleeping while I’m supposed to be working.
• If we webcast, we can’t operate in the dark any longer. Everyone will know what we’re doing. (Oh no!)
But webcasting took hold anyway, thanks to the rogue efforts of state Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones and media outlets including the New Mexico Independent and KUNM radio. The Independent added liveblogging, creating another forum for debate parallel to the ongoing legislative proceeding.
Their work pushed the Legislature to do something official. But the Legislature’s webcasting isn’t archived, so the recordings created by Arnold-Jones, the Independent and others, along with the liveblogging, are the closest thing we have to permanent records of legislative proceedings.
Heath Haussamen
In recent months, the Independent has led the way in using webcasting as a tool to make government more accessible. But after the news outlet webcast and liveblogged a recent meeting of the Richardson Administration’s Budget Balancing Task Force, Taxation and Revenue Secretary Rick Homans, chairman of the task force, decided to step up.
He announced on Tuesday that there will be official webcasts of the remaining two meetings of the task force on Thursday in Farmington and Dec. 17 in Santa Fe.
Homans told me he has been a fan of the webcasting and liveblogging that’s taken place this year. During legislative sessions, it gave him a way to go back and watch meetings at his own pace and on his own time — so he already understands the benefit.
In short, if it made government meetings more accessible to him, there’s no doubt it will make the work of the task force more accessible to New Mexicans.
“I really couldn’t come up with a reason not to (webcast),” Homans told me. “It just seemed like the right thing to do. … If we’re going to make any changes to the tax code, we need as much thoughtful assistance as possible.”
Agreed. Homans gets it. Let’s hope others in state government follow his example. The Legislature should expand webcasting to include audio and video of all its meetings – including committee meetings held in Santa Fe and interim meetings held around the state. The Richardson administration should webcast all meetings of its task forces. Legislative and administration news conferences should be webcast. All of it should be archived.
Webcasting is cheap. Budgetary concerns are not a valid reason to oppose webcasting.
Thanks for helping state government enter the 21st Century, Secretary Homans.