December 29, 2008

Which Side Their Bacon's Buttered On

Justin Katz

I've been meaning to make sure y'all are aware of a newly available resource for transparency in state government:

For the first time, the commission has posted online the latest financial disclosure statement filed by each of the state's general officers - the governor, lieutenant governor, state treasurer, secretary of state and attorney general - and every current state legislator.

The filings can be found under the heading "financial disclosure'' on the Ethics Commission's web page: http://www.ethics.ri.gov/disclosure/

Our judiciary can declare legislators' votes to be sacrosanct, but if voters have the right information — and someday manage to gather the will to deny lawmakers' political checkmate — they can punish the appearance of impropriety.