{"id":437089,"date":"2017-10-02T09:17:34","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T15:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=437089"},"modified":"2017-10-02T09:17:34","modified_gmt":"2017-10-02T15:17:34","slug":"its-time-for-new-mexico-to-get-serious-about-open-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/10\/its-time-for-new-mexico-to-get-serious-about-open-data\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s time for New Mexico to get serious about open data"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:<\/strong> New Mexico law guarantees your right to review government data. But when it comes to giving you meaningful access to the numbers that shape and reflect public policy, the legal guarantee ends.<\/p>\n

While state law requires public bodies to give you most types of public data upon request, it leaves \u201chow\u201d that access will occur largely up to the agency from which you request it. The regulations that control how the law is applied create a series of uneven and unpredictable roadblocks that complicate \u2014 or even prevent \u2014 meaningful analysis of public data. Searchlight New Mexico and other media organizations repeatedly run into these when we try to open public records to the public.<\/p>\n

\"John

Courtesy photo<\/p>

John R. Roby<\/p><\/div>\n

This is about numbers, but don\u2019t turn away because of that. Your government\u2019s numbers determine your taxes and influence your children\u2019s education and your quality of life. This is about what your elected officials pay themselves, how much they spend on contracts and to which vendors, and who\u2019s giving money to elect them. On a more basic level, this is about bus schedules and arrest rates and traffic lights and which books are most popular at your local library.<\/p>\n