{"id":24460,"date":"2010-12-19T23:49:43","date_gmt":"2010-12-20T06:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=24460"},"modified":"2010-12-20T08:35:59","modified_gmt":"2010-12-20T15:35:59","slug":"nm-leads-the-way-in-transparency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/12\/nm-leads-the-way-in-transparency\/","title":{"rendered":"NM leads the way in transparency"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

New Mexico leapt ahead of most states last week in a key area: government transparency.<\/p>\n

The unveiling of the state\u2019s Sunshine Portal<\/a>, coupled with the recent expansions of legislative webcasting, give people better access to state government in New Mexico than they\u2019ve ever had before.<\/p>\n

The N.M. Foundation For Open Government\u2019s Sarah Welsh put it this way in a letter to supporters:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I became FOG\u2019s executive director last year, one of the first things I did was survey the landscape of open-government initiatives around the country. I quickly discovered that it\u2019s all about tech \u2013 releasing raw data, building online checkbooks, webcasting. It\u2019s about giving people real-time, hands-on access to government information without the need to file a written request.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, wouldn\u2019t that be great? But New Mexico will take\u00a0years\u00a0to get on that train. How wrong I was.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Last week, a beta version of the Sunshine Portal went live \u2013 six months ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n

It is, quite simply, fantastic.<\/p>\n

Check it out at sunshineportalnm.com<\/a>. You can find detailed information about the state\u2019s cash balances, purchases, revenue, appropriations, state land contracts, employee salaries and other info.<\/p>\n

For example, if you look at salaries in the governor\u2019s office, you\u2019ll find that five employees make more than the governor.<\/p>\n

If you check out State Land Office business leases, you\u2019ll find five for Katerina, LLC. That\u2019s a company organized by Las Crucen Philip Philippou, a controversial developer whose interactions with the land office have gained media attention in the past.<\/p>\n

Thanks to those who made this happen<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

The bottom line: People now have easier access to financial information from state government than they ever have before. And New Mexico is now one of the states at the forefront of utilizing the Internet to provide such access to information.<\/p>\n

Thank you to Sen. Sander Rue, R-Albuquerque, for sponsoring the legislation<\/a> that created the Sunshine Portal. Thank you lawmakers for approving the legislation.<\/p>\n

Thank you Lt. Gov. Diane Denish for pushing for the creation of the Sunshine Portal and signing the bill into law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are more steps to be taken. Audio and video webcasting should be expanded to all policymaking bodies in state government. Webcasting should be archived online. The sunshine portal should include real-time information, not just recent information. Actual documents should be scanned and put online.<\/p>\n

But the Sunshine Portal is a gigantic leap forward for New Mexico. Thanks to those who made it happen.<\/p>\n

Haussamen bio<\/a> \u2502\u00a0Commentary archives<\/a> \u2502\u00a0Feed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the unveiling of the Sunshine Portal, people have easier access to financial information from state government than they ever have before. And New Mexico is now one of the states at the forefront of utilizing the Internet to provide such access to information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[111,107],"class_list":["post-24460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-open-government","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}