{"id":27237,"date":"2011-03-15T08:39:29","date_gmt":"2011-03-15T14:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=27237"},"modified":"2011-03-15T16:39:19","modified_gmt":"2011-03-15T22:39:19","slug":"public-information-shouldn%e2%80%99t-be-sold-for-profit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/03\/public-information-shouldn%e2%80%99t-be-sold-for-profit\/","title":{"rendered":"Public information shouldn\u2019t be sold for profit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

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

Public information belongs to the public, and it shouldn\u2019t be sold for profit by the government. But that\u2019s exactly what the state is doing with its electronic database of driver\u2019s records.<\/p>\n

That information is sold exclusively to a Kansas company, which has a monopoly on selling the information to everyone else. Former Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s<\/a> administration thought this was a good idea, and it entered into a contract that turns public records into a profit-making venture.<\/p>\n

A bill that would have undone that outrageous deal was tabled Monday by the House Appropriations and Finance Committee because \u2013 surprise, surprise \u2013 the state is now dependent on the $6 million the records generate every year, and the Motor Vehicle Division doesn\u2019t know how to live without that cash.<\/p>\n

Though House Bill 406<\/a>, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Cervantes<\/a>, D-Las Cruces, had previously passed two committees unanimously, it appears to be dead this session. The appropriation committee\u2019s vote to table was 9-5, with four members absent.<\/p>\n

While her taxation and revenue secretary opposed the bill during Monday\u2019s hearing, Gov. Susana Martinez<\/a> wasn\u2019t quite as clear on her position in a statement from spokesman Scott Darnell to NMPolitics.net.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe governor is supportive of the intention in HB 406; however, she is also very concerned by what appears to be a significant fiscal impact to the state budget \u2013 which would need to be resolved in the overall construct of the state budget,\u201d Darnell said.<\/p>\n

Boo.<\/p>\n

\u2018The public owns these records\u2019<\/h3>\n

The bill had broad, bipartisan support because it\u2019s needed. Public records belong to the public \u2013 not to a state agency or a private company seeking to make a buck off them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s ridiculous that one state agency has a private company padding the cost of providing the records to the public with profits for the company and the state agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am disappointed that an idea with broad bipartisan support is being held hostage to one agency\u2019s profit-making scheme,\u201d said N.M. Foundation for Open Government<\/a> Executive Director Sarah Welsh.<\/p>\n

The bill would have repealed what the foundation called \u201cbroad and unconstitutional\u201d restrictions on all state databases, making information in those databases fully available to the public \u2013 at the actual cost of providing the records, not at a cost a private company deems appropriate so it and the state can make a profit.<\/p>\n

Welsh said the amount of money generated for the state is irrelevant, because it\u2019s not OK for the government to sell the public\u2019s records for profit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t doubt that the government can make a lot of money by selling its records,\u201d Welsh said. \u201cBut the public owns those records, and it shouldn\u2019t have to pay for them twice.\u201d<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t have said it better.<\/p>\n

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

Public information belongs to the public, and it shouldn\u2019t be sold for profit by the government. But that\u2019s exactly what the state is doing with its electronic database of driver\u2019s records.<\/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":[118,111,107],"class_list":["post-27237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-economy","tag-open-government","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27237","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=27237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}