The Bona Venture

Issue date: 11/21/08 Section: Web Exclusives

John Maggiore, policy advisor to New York State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, visited campus Thursday as a guest speaker in several classes. He discussed freedom of information and government accountability and how Project Sunlight, the attorney general office's public integrity initiative to provide easy access to state government information, advances these ideas. Maggiore said the Web site, created in August 2007, provides detailed information on legislative bills, elected officials and their voting records, lobbyists, state contracts, campaigns' finances and member items. Member items are similar to earmarks; they are money allocations added to a bill for use in specific public projects. State legislators depend on these member items to obtain funding for various programs and projects within their districts. For a detailed example, a user can go to the Web site, http://www.sunlightny.org/snl1/faces/app/index.jsp, and select the browse link for elected officials and get your state assemblyperson's or Senator's contact information, find out the committees they've sat on, legislation they've sponsored, their campaign contributions and their member items. Maggiore said Cuomo's motivation in starting this initiative was to make state government more transparent, and he cited a lack of media coverage as contributing to people's lack of information of state government. "The functions of state government are a mystery to a lot of people," he said, "It's a mystery that is not good for democracy because in a democracy, government is supposed to serve the people. In order for voters to make informed choices they should have a pretty good idea of what's going on in the government that they're choosing." The Web site is unique because it brings all of this information about the state government and its legislators into one database. Maggiore, as a spokesman for the project, said he wants to make people aware of this source of information. "We want to tell you … the general public that this exists and it's available for you to use," he said. Junior Ryan Poole attended the lecture as part of his class and said he wasn't previously aware any site like Project Sunlight existed. "I personally don't see myself using this Web site anytime soon … But I think Project Sunlight is a good campaign and excellent for people who are really involved in politics and want to know where the money the state has is going," he said. Junior Mary Cooke agreed and said Maggiore taught her a lot about the Freedom of Information Act, a piece of legislation passed in 1966 intended to compel government agencies to releases requested information, unless the information fell under any of nine exemptions. Cooke also said she liked the idea of Project Sunlight. "It's nice that it's conveniently available online … what I thought was most informative was how people can find out how money is being spent throughout the state," she said. Maggiore said he believes journalists are the primary users of the Web site and are the biggest supporters of it because they no longer have to go through Freedom of Information Act paperwork. Project Sunlight has enjoyed positive media attention and several editorials have mentioned it, including one in The Buffalo News in July. The article labels the initiative a positive effort to make New York government more open and available. e-mail: holfotsm@sbu.edu

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