A heated debate over proposed lobbying legislation is underway in Great Britain, where lobbying reform legislation has been offered as a result of a scandal in which Members of the House of Lords apparently offered assistance to fake solar energy lobbyists in exchange for payment.
Prime Minister David Cameron proposed lobbying reform legislation in 2010, but it took the scandal to muster enough outrage to spawn reform efforts.
Much of the outcry over the bill is focused on provisions that would limit the amount of money third parties could spend on elections. But even more fundamentally, the bill fails to do what it set out to do—that is, shine a light on the activities of lobbyists. The bill is so poorly and narrowly crafted that it may result in less transparency than is currently provided by the UK’s voluntary (and woefully incomplete) lobbyist registry.
In new battleground over toxic reform, American Chemistry Council targets the states
This is a special report from The Center for Public Integerity, a member -- like the Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group -- of the Investigative News Network.
HARTFORD, Conn. — In the bare-knuckle war over toxic chemicals, the fight between industry and activists has shifted noticeably from Washington, D.C., to state venues such as the golden-domed Capitol that rises over Hartford like a lordly manse.
What happened this year in Hartford shows how industry — fueled by the American Chemistry Council, a $100 million a year advocacy group glittered with Fortune 500 partners — is flexing its muscles from statehouse to statehouse to beat back ...
Continue readingToday in #OpenGov 9/9/2013
National News
- Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is standing up for Federal whistleblowers after a troubling court decision last month. Grassley sent a letter to the Obama administration urging it to ensure that large swaths of workers will not have their right to appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board taken away. (Washington Post)
- Despite the media's enduring love of coverage about new super PACs, many of the groups, including some run by big political names, are having trouble raising money this year. (POLITICO)
- Soon-to-be Senator Cory Booker is ending his cutting his ties with Waywire, an internet startup that he helped pull together by leveraging his connections in Silicon Valley. Stories about the startup have not been able to stop the Newark, New Jersey Mayor's roll towards Capitol Hill, but they have become embarrassing. (New York Times)
- President Obama stressed the importance of freedom of the press, assembly, and speech at a meeting with Russian civil society organizations during his trip to the G-20 last week. Russia has taken a restrictive view of press and civil society, with recent controversies over gay rights highlighting some of the issues. (POLITICO)
- Britain is considering a plan to significantly change the scope of their census. The plan would save money, but experts are concerned that it would not provide necessary levels of detail to researchers and businesses who rely on the data. (BBC News)
- South Australia is jumping into open data feet first with a series of initiatives including a new data portal, an open data action plan, and an open data challenge to encourage use of government data. (FutureGov)
- The Declaration on Parliamentary Openness continues to line up support around the globe, recently adding the first International Organization to its list of backers. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly endorsed the declaration this month. (NDI)
- Escalating fears of a municipal credit crisis are resulting in higher debt service costs for local governments. One way to alleviate some of these concerns is to make more information available to investors in better formats, specifically, according to this post, XBRL. (Tabb Forum)
- The long fight to get California to post raw campaign and lobbying data online may be coming to an end. According to Secretary of State Deborah Bowen both datasets will now be available for download through the Cal-Access portal. (Tech Wire) Continue reading
Shining a Light on Black Budgets
Last week, the Washington Post reported that new documents leaked by Edward Snowden reveal the budgets of the sixteen United States intelligence agencies. The budgets, which had never previously been revealed to the American public, totaled $52.6 billion, including $14.7 billion for the Central Intelligence Agency, $10.8 billion the National Security Agency, and $10.3 billion for the National Reconnaissance Office.
This revelation shines a badly needed light on the way that our intelligence agencies spend money. We’ve written about the importance of spending transparency many times before. As we’ve argued, “access to government spending information is a fundamental pillar of an accountable government. It provides a basis for citizen participation, promotes government integrity, and encourages greater efficiency.”
OpenGov Voices: A Transparent Approach to Understanding Local Government Debt
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the guest blogger and those providing comments are theirs alone and do not reflect the opinions of the Sunlight Foundation or any employee thereof. Sunlight 
Foundation is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information within the guest blog.
Marc Joffe is the founder of Public Sector Credit Solutions (PSCS) which applies open data and analytics to rating government bonds. Before starting PSCS, Marc was a Senior Director at Moody’s Analytics. You can contact him at marc@publicsectorcredit.org. Marc is also one of the winners of Sunlight Foundation’s OpenGov Grants.
High profile bankruptcy filings by Detroit and other cities, along with concerns about public employee pensions, are increasing borrowing costs for state and local governments. Higher interest payments to bondholders mean higher taxes and fewer services. However, with transparent data and analytics, local government bonds can get reasonable interest rates -- as this post will illustrate.
Over the last 70 years, municipal bond defaults have been rare. In a typical year, no more than one in 1,000 municipalities fail to make timely payments on their tax supported debt. Also, interest on municipal bonds is exempt from federal income taxes and usually free of state income taxes as well.
Because of their low risk and favorable tax treatment, municipal bonds have typically yielded less than US Treasury bonds – making it easy for states, cities, counties and school districts to finance new infrastructure. Time series data available from the Federal Reserve (a portion of which is depicted in the accompanying graph) show that yields on “munis” were lower than Treasuries from 1953 until the 2008 financial crisis. This discount returned briefly in 2010, but since Meredith Whitney predicted a wave of municipal bond defaults on 60 Minutes in December 2010, muni yields have exceeded Treasury yields – often by substantial margins.
Municipal and Treasury data Continue readingToday in #OpenGov 9/6/2013
News “We know secrecy corrupts, and we see that corruption.” Security expert Bruce Schneier argues that the only way for... View Article
Continue readingWhen will Open Data come to your town?
Whether you’re steeped in the open government world (as we at Sunlight are) or are not yet familiar with capital-O capital-D Open Data Policies, there are two key elements you’ll see taking a bird’s eye view at open data policies in this U.S.: They’re new and they’re gaining momentum.
Continue readingReasons (Not) to Release Data
Earlier this year, Sunlight was issued a challenge: Collect and refute the most common reasons not to release data. As many open access advocates, journalists, and government employees themselves will tell you, there are a variety of "no's" given when the question of data disclosure arises. Many are predictable, some are political, some personal, many practical, and all deserving of attention. Pioneers looking to move their government toward exploring and advancing information release have already come up with rebuttals to many of these refusals, but the collective knowledge is hard to share, usually trapped in email groups, discussion boards, blogs, and the memories and experiences of individuals. So, we're going to meet our challenge with an experiment.
Continue readingToday in #OpenGov 9/5/2013
News Staff salary expenditures in the House have been falling steadily this decade, after large increases between 2001 and 2010.... View Article
Continue readingBattle over dark money takes many forms on state level
An analysis of dozens of laws introduced in state legislatures during the last two years suggests widespread concern over the effects of unlimited campaign spending groups in the wake of *Citizens United*.
Continue reading
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