The Maine State Legislature and Governor Paul LePage are celebrating Sunshine Week with secrecy this year. Ironic, yes. And dangerous. Sunshine Week is an annual celebration of the freedom of access or public "right to know" laws that ensure our government is open and the citizenry informed. Governor Lepage and the legislature dutifully issued lofty proclamations in honor of Sunshine Week...while pushing forward a sweeping proposal that would exempt the Governor and his internal staff from Maine's freedom of access laws for all "records relating to the deliberative process of the governor." Does the Governor think we won't notice that he's lobbying to become the least transparent governor in Maine's history? The legislation was amended by the Judiciary Committee to place more specific time limits on the exemption and a sunset provision, but these modifications are cold comfort to those of us who care about ensuring the public has timely access to information about the Governor's decisions. It's not too late to prevail upon the legislature to vote down the Governor's secrecy bill when they reconvene next week for full debates in the House and Senate.
Please take a minute to:
1. Contact your legislators before the vote next week, and tell them to vote "no" to LD 1805!
2. Call Governor LePage at (207) 287-3531 and remind him that he promised on the campaign trail that "open government will be a reality, not a talking point."
3. Sign up to be a member of the ACLU to help us defend democracy.
