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Governor Signs Bill to Reduce Transparency

By Robert J. Ambrogi

Dan Ring, State House reporter for The Republican, has a report on the latest move by the state to cut the public out of public works projects: Measure Will Affect Newspaper Advertising.

The kicker is near the end, where Cynthia M. Roy, a spokeswoman for Gov. Patrick, says the law will save time and money. Most newspapers can get these notices in the next day, so what kind of time is saved? As for money, her claim that this will save state government "tens of thousands of dollars" is ludicrous.

I have no objection to the state posting public notices on its own Web site. My objection is doing that to the exclusion of newspapers. Members of the public simply are not going to check a construction-industry web site on a routine basis. These shallow allegations of time and cost savings are subterfuge for shielding this process from the public eye.

Full post as published by Lawsites on July 07, 2009 (boomark / email).