State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

After Public Fury in Washington State, Lawmakers Rethink Legislative Transparency

Route Fifty: In Washington state, the governor and officials in municipal and county governments are used to the idea that the documents and communications they produce every day on the public’s behalf belong to the public and are subject to the state’s open records laws. State legislators in Olympia, however, are not so used to the idea.

They drew intense public backlash over the last month for seeking to resist records transparency, losing a district court case against a coalition of news organizations and then, in response, attempting and failing to enact a law that would exempt them from key provisions of the state’s open records provisions.

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