Editorial: Open government goes beyond access
May 5, 2009: "There's little point in opening government records to the public if the information is too difficult to find, sort through or taxes the everyday understanding of the average Vermonter. Too often that's the case with what we get from Montpelier, especially when it comes to the budget.
In keeping track of our government, the budget is always a good place to start. There's little Montpelier can do without spending our money. That means the spending plan often speaks more clearly and loudly about how state government affects our lives than all the public pronouncements of our elected officials and bureaucrats combined." Read the full editorial here.
Criminal records now available to public on state Web site
December 27, 2008: "Vermonters who are curious about the people in their community now have a new way to access criminal records.
Thanks to a new service launched Dec. 15 by the Vermont Criminal Information Center, private residents and businesses are able to retrieve criminal conviction documents over the Internet. Anyone can access the service through he state's official Web site, http://www.vermont.gov.
In 2008, the Vermont Legislature passed a new law allowing for Vermont criminal conviction records to be purchased and retrieved online." Read the full article here.
Editorial: Exorbitant fee limits public records access
December 18, 2008: "Vermont may be the last strong hold of participatory democracy, but Montpelier keeps proving that it understands little when it comes to open government.
The latest transgression is a scheme to charge Vermonters -- and charge them dearly -- to access criminal conviction records online, a proverbial case of one step forward, two steps back. The whole idea of easy access to a public record is marred by the charge of $20 per request, a fee that's scheduled to go up to $30 on July 1.
There is no way to justify charging $30 or even $20 on the basis of how much it costs to retrieve information from an existing electronic database. The fee is nothing more than a tax, and the fee bump on July 1 is a tax increase. What other tax do they plan to raise by 50 percent?" Read the full editorial here.
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