The power of government comes from the will of the people to be governed. Citizens do not, and should not, turn a blind eye to the work of elected officials. Governance without oversight will lead quickly to favoritism and corruption.
These are hardly new concepts. Perhaps Washington’s Public Records Act, originally passed by voters in 1972, says it best:
“The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies that serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may maintain control over the instruments that they have created.”
With these truths in mind, it’s almost inconceivable that, according to a recent story by CascadePBS, legislators have spent more than $192,000 in taxpayers’ money while trying to withhold public records from some of those very same taxpayers.
That is the amount the state spent in 2023 and 2024 with Summit Law Group, hired by the Legislature to defend its use of “legislative privilege” to avoid disclosing public records. And that’s just part of the total cost to the state of litigating the two lawsuits in question.
This spending is just the latest in a yearslong effort by legislators of both parties to conceal their thoughts and interactions. Which lobbyists are wining and dining which legislators? Who is getting a chance to meet privately with the committee chairman? What sorts of back-room favors are being granted by caucus members?
Seems like relevant and useful information, right? The state Supreme Court thinks so. In 2019, justices ruled that legislators are subject to open public records act, just like state agencies and employees. That’s when legislators carved out the current hokum about “legislative privilege.”
The court’s ruling followed another attempt in 2018 to codify legislative secrecy. In that case, legislators quietly passed a bill in 48 hours, before the word could get out about it or any testimony could be taken from advocates of good government. It only failed when Gov. Jay Inslee, reacting to significant public pressure, vetoed the bill.
Lest you think only the news media is opposed to secrecy, Cascade PBS and Elway Research conducted a statewide poll in January that found 82 percent of Washingtonians, regardless of political party or leanings, believe legislators need to comply with the Open Public Records Act.
Lawmakers might argue that they should be exempt because disclosure of some information does not serve the public interest. That’s true, and that is why the Open Public Records Act contains dozens, if not hundreds, of exemptions to disclosure. The public doesn’t want, and is not entitled, to know the House speaker’s medical claims history. But we should be entitled to know which, if any, health insurance lobbyists she meets with regularly.
With the state facing a $10 billion to $16 billion budget shortfall over the next four years, the 2025 legislative session is going to be intense. Legislators will make tough decisions about which programs and services will be continued, which will be reduced and which will be eliminated. The public interest is best served when we know how and why these decisions are made.
Good government requires transparency, not obfuscation. It’s shameful that the effort continues to draw a cloak over the public’s business, particularly at taxpayers’ expense.