Public Information Is Not Dangerous
By Darrell M. West
(appeared in Providence Journal, April 22, 1999)

In 1982, when I moved to Rhode Island to begin teaching at Brown University, I was startled to learn the extent to which powerful people within the state believed that information was dangerous.

Periodically, a small group of leading Rhode Island businesses, including the Providence Journal, would conduct public opinion surveys about business, politics, and public policy that never were made public.

In part, these believed that because they had paid for the surveys, the information was proprietary and deserved to be kept confidential.

But there was another unstated yet widely-shared presumption as well. Information was power and it was important to control the dissemination of material that offered public opinion insights crucial for community leaders.

Since that time, polling has become a public enterprise through the efforts of Brown University (political and policy surveys), the University of Rhode Island (consumer confidence), and area media outlets (election polls).

No one questions the public dissemination of polling material that two decades ago was considered highly confidential. We take for granted that there will be periodic surveys on pressing policy matters

Over the past 20 years, we also have grown accustomed to the idea that government meetings should be open to the public and that official records should be accessible to whoever requests the information. While Rhode Island continues to struggle with issues related to meetings and records, this year the debate has moved from public access to information to how to make information that already is considered open, such as campaign finance data and the ethics filings of public officials, more easily accessible to the general populace. Here, reformers have hit a brick wall of government resistance.

For three years, the Rhode Island Board of Elections has requested $200,000 to design an electronic reporting and tracking system for campaign finance data. Such systems are routine in national politics. Both the Federal Election Commission and private organizations such as the Center for Responsive Politics routinely make available on-line information on how federal candidates raise and spend campaign dollars. Public release of this material is not considered an act of insurrection.

The same is true in many other states. Thirty-one states around the country have systems that make campaign finance data easily available to journalists and the general public.

So far, despite technological advances, record prosperity, and unprecedented budget surpluses, the General Assembly has refused to budget the relatively small sum of $200,000 that would implement a sophisticated electronic filing system. This request would only make campaign finance data that already is publicly available at election board headquarters more easily accessible through the Internet.

As pointed out in a recent commentary by former Republican Secretary of State candidate Eduardo Lopez, legislative critics assail a current bill by State Representative Edith Ajello requiring electronic filing of campaign finance material as a move that would discourage potential candidates and lead to the systematic harassment of donors.

Right now, a new Internet website -- InsidePolitics.org -- is testing these concerns. Using information that is publicly available, we are posting on-line material on contributors and expenditures for Rhode Island candidates. If you want to see who is funding our members of the U.S. House, U.S. Senate, and leading statewide officials, check out the website. The information is revealing and enlightening, but not seditious.

As a further sign of the state's continuing resistance to easily available public information, the Rhode Island Ethics Commission for several years has requested funding to put on-line financial disclosure information from the ethics filings of public officials. Each time, the request has been denied by the General Assembly.

InsidePolitics.org is working to put this material on the Internet as well using paper copies of the information that already is available at commission offices. Soon, we will have a broad range of government financial disclosure on the Internet. The ethics filings of government officials will be easily accessible by anyone with a computer modem or time to log onto a computer at a local library.

This year is a good time for Rhode Island to enter the 21st century in terms of access to information. The state's economy is strong. Eighty-two percent of citizens believe things in Rhode Island are headed in the right direction. We have overcome our legacy of public cynicism and negativity dating back to the banking crisis of the early 1990s.

It is time for our government leaders to take action and join the Internet Age. Public information is not dangerous, unless officials have done something that is wrong.