Spending: April 2009 Archives

Chris Cinquemani, who is the public relations director for Maine Leads (a nonpartisan, not-for-profit citizen group committed to lower taxes and government transparency in Maine) says that "Removing names from public salaries tramples principles of transparency." His column in today's Sun-Journal goes on to say that, "LD 1353 is the greatest threat to government transparency Maine has ever seen. Sen. Marrache and the other sponsors appear as if they want to turn our government into a secret society."


Also, this column in the Brunswick Times Record by Sam Adolphsen, coordinator of MaineOpenGov.org, details the popularity of the web site, and why he thinks LD 1353 is a bad idea for Maine.

As we move quickly toward an April 30th public hearing on LD 1353, a bill that would hide public employees names as it related to their tax-payer funded salaries, local media continues to blast the bill, proposed by Assistant Senate Leader Lisa Marrache (D) of Waterville.

The Bangor Daily News says the bill is "blocking the sunhine" that MaineOpenGov.org has provided for taxpayers, and let's face it, we need all the sunshine we can get here in Maine.

The Maine Sunday Telegram provides some additional insight, including posting the top 10 salaries in the executive branch of Maine's government.

It's Friday...and you know what that means...another edition of Maine Checkbook Trivia!

The answer to last week's trivia was...C! Again. Submit your guesses this week to the comment section...

More news today surrounding the LD 1353 bill that would hide public employees salary information.

This mornings editorial in the Kennebec Journal on LD 1353 points out that this bill to censor government employees salary information might be the result of a "you scratch our back we'll scratch yours" relationship between the Democrats in the Maine State Legislature and the public employees unions.

For an additional audio report on this story, listen to MPBN's report.

In today's Portland Press Herald article about LD 1353, a bill that would hide public employees salary information, Democrat Senator Leadership speaks out against MaineOpenGov.org.

Elizabeth Mitchell (D) - Vassalboro, says that the website is an attempt to "harass and embarrass" government employees, while the bills sponsor, Lisa Marrache' (D) - Waterville, says that "No one is trying to make Maine the most secretive government in the country," even though no precedant for this type of legislation has been found.

The bill will have a public hearing on April 30, and will then be voted on by the judiciary committee, which happens to be the committee containing two cosponsors of the bill, Sen. Lawrence Bliss (D) - Cumberland, and Sen. Mark Bryant (D) - Windham.

*Update - Read the Kennebec Journals take on this bill


*Update number 2 - Very insightful article in the Village Soup, including many legislators weighing in on the bill

The answer to last week's trivia question is....drumroll please....C

Post your answers to this weeks trivia in the comments section

The Maine Heritage Policy Center has won the 2009 Sunshine Award, given by the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition, for it's creation of the MaineOpenGov.org website.

The Maine Open Government Blog was highlighted in the article by Tarren Bragdon, CEO of the Maine Heritage Policy Center: "the site will soon feature blogs -- both anonymous and bylined, said Bragdon."

An article about this award was also published in the Ellsworth American.