{"id":5723,"date":"2012-03-19T11:12:12","date_gmt":"2012-03-19T17:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=5723"},"modified":"2012-03-19T11:12:12","modified_gmt":"2012-03-19T17:12:12","slug":"idahos-among-the-worst-states-when-it-comes-to-government-transparency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/19\/idahos-among-the-worst-states-when-it-comes-to-government-transparency\/","title":{"rendered":"Idaho&#8217;s Among The Worst States When It Comes To Government Transparency"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_5752\"  class=\"wp-caption module image left\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"The State Integrity Investigation gives Idaho a D-. \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/03\/D_KevinH._Flickr.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5752\" title=\"D_KevinH._Flickr\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/03\/D_KevinH._Flickr-300x190.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"190\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/03\/D_KevinH._Flickr-300x190.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/03\/D_KevinH._Flickr-620x394.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/03\/D_KevinH._Flickr-220x139.jpg 220w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/03\/D_KevinH._Flickr.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Kevin H. \/ Flickr<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The State Integrity Investigation gives Idaho a D-.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The latest government transparency report gives Idaho a near failing grade, ranking the Gem State among the ten worst states for transparency in the country.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stateintegrity.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">State Integrity Investigation<\/a> gives Idaho an overall grade of D-.\u00a0 The report looks at 14 categories, six of which the state failed.\u00a0 The worst grades went to categories like legislative accountability, executive accountability and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boisestatepublicradio.org\/2012\/03\/19\/idaho-nearly-fails-government-accountability-report-card\/\" target=\"_blank\">ethics enforcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>You can click through the different categories to get more information on the methodology used for grading. <!--more--><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stateintegrity.org\/idaho_embedded_report\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"500\" height=\"715\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Longtime Capitol reporter Betsy Russell from <em>The Spokesman Review<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stateintegrity.org\/idaho_story_subpage\" target=\"_blank\">wrote the narrative<\/a> behind Idaho&#8217;s government transparency report card.\u00a0 She says while there is no history here of corruption or smoke-filled hearing rooms, Idaho does have a way to go when it comes to financial disclosure and ethics enforcement.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Idaho&#8217;s lack of financial disclosure and &#8220;revolving-door&#8221; laws leaves its state government vulnerable. Even though most public officials here may be honest, hard-working and dedicated to doing the right thing, without disclosure requirements, there&#8217;s no way to know for sure.&#8221; &#8211; Betsy Russell<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the interesting thing. Not a single state received an A, just five states got a B.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>19 states received a C<\/li>\n<li>18 got D\u2019s<\/li>\n<li>Eight states failed, getting 59 percent or below<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The State Integrity Investigation was a months-long probe conducted by the Center For Public Integrity, Public Radio International and Global Integrity.<\/p>\n<p>In a <a title=\"\u201cF\u201d Is For \u201cFlunk\u201d: Idaho Falls Short In Transparency Study\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/14\/f-is-for-flunk-idaho-falls-short-in-transparency-study\/\" target=\"_blank\">separate government transparency study<\/a> released last week, Idaho officially slipped into the failing category, ranking last among states.\u00a0 The U.S. Public Interest Research Group&#8217;s <a title=\"\u201cF\u201d Is For \u201cFlunk\u201d: Idaho Falls Short In Transparency Study\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/14\/f-is-for-flunk-idaho-falls-short-in-transparency-study\/\" target=\"_blank\">report card <\/a>focused on government spending.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThe main thing is that Idaho is one of the four states that does not have checkbook-level expenditure information,\u201d Tax and Budget Associate Ryan Pierannunzi explained.\u00a0 \u201cWe consider that the very basic thing that all states should have.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The state controller&#8217;s office told <em>StateImpact Idaho<\/em> <a title=\"Update: \u201cF\u201d Is For \u201cFlunk,\u201d But Also For \u201cFunding\u201d\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/15\/update-f-is-for-flunk-but-also-for-funding\/\" target=\"_blank\">it&#8217;s been trying<\/a> to get funding for the kind of transparency website the U.S. Public Interest Research Group thinks all states should have.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThe governor put it into our budget this year, but it was pulled,\u201d says Brandon Woolf, Chief of Staff at the State Controllers Office.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s trying to get blood out of a turnip.\u00a0 We realized there was no money over these recent years.\u00a0 We\u2019ve shared that this is a request we\u2019re going to keep bringing up, each of these years we\u2019ve gone before <a title=\"Your Guide to JFAC (Joint Finance Appropriations Committee)\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/topic\/jfac\/\" target=\"_blank\">JFAC<\/a>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Last week was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sunshineweek.org\/About.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Sunshine Week<\/a>, an effort to highlight the importance of government transparency and public information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The latest government transparency report gives Idaho a near failing grade, ranking the Gem State among the ten worst states for transparency in the country. The State Integrity Investigation gives Idaho an overall grade of D-.\u00a0 The report looks at 14 categories, six of which the state failed.\u00a0 The worst grades went to categories like [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":5752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[235,145],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5723"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5762,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5723\/revisions\/5762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}