Story Tools  E-mail Story  Print Friendly Send E-mail To Sean Olson BY Recent stories by Sean Olson $$ NewsLibrary Archives search for Sean Olson '95-now Reprint story Featured Jobs Featured Jobs Feature Your Jobs: call 823-4444 Legislature Legislature May Land on Web; Lawmakers OK Equipment Buy Gambling Foes Urged to Act; Gov. Gets Few Calls Seeking Veto of Bills Legislature OKs $5 Million for Plane Gov. Making List for Next Session; Loans, Wells To Be on '06 Agenda Lawmakers May Take Fitness Lead Voter ID Is Just One Part of Bill Richardson's Tax Cuts OK'd Tax Cuts, Pre-K Package Approved; Gov. Says No Special Session Public Works Bill OK'd; $471 Million Plan Largest on Record Summary of Major Legislation That Passed, Failed in the 60-Day Legislative Session More Legislature

          Front Page  news  xgr

Saturday, February 06, 2010

Senate Unanimous on 'Sunshine Portal'

By Sean Olson
Journal Staff Writer
          SANTA FE — The Senate on Friday approved a bill that would make state finances and other public information available on a free Web site by mid-2011.
        The "Sunshine Portal" bill (SB195) would require the state to make an online, searchable database with state contracts, employee information and other financial information available to the public. The Senate approved the bill unanimously.
        Sen. Sander Rue, R-Albuquerque, said the bill would make it easier for people to track spending and save time and money on information requests from the public.
        "The whole point of this is transparency," Rue said.
        Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, who has been a strong supporter of the bill, said it would provide transparency that would be "a major step forward" for the state.
        "In this day and age, New Mexicans deserve to have access to government information in an easy-to-use, online format," Denish said. "The 'Sunshine Portal' is an idea whose time has come."
        The bill was passed after one amendment, proposed by Sen. John Ryan, R-Albuquerque, requiring that the portal contain the names of exempt employees — those serving at the will of the governor — along with their job titles and salaries. The amendment also passed unanimously.
        Other information that would be contained in the Web site, which would have to be launched by July 2011, includes:
        • Information and copies of all state contracts.
        • Monthly updates on state spending, revenues and individual state agency budgets.
        • Monthly updates on state investment funds.
        • A list of all state employee names, titles and salaries.
        • Tracking for capital outlay — or brick-and-mortar — projects across the state.
        Lawmakers were also complimentary of a plan to turn the Web site into a one-stop site to link to all state departments and include information on services or programs.
        "Having a central portal is really going to open up government," said Sen. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque.
       

We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately.