There’s strong bipartisan support among California voters for efforts that, if undertaken, would improve transparency in the state government, according to a new poll.
The Institute for Advanced Technology and Public Policy (IATPP) at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, engaged two polling firms – one Democratic and the other Republican – to measure sentiment among 800 likely voters on five reform proposals:
Searchable documents. 91 percent of respondents said they support requiring all documents, including the state budget, to be available online within a search engine.
Legislative spending reports. 90 percent of those surveyed said they are in favor of putting online a detailed quarterly report of all legislative spending, including travel, staff, perks, mailings and committees.
Video of legislative hearings. 86 percent of respondents said they would support requiring all public hearings in the Legislature to be video recorded and made available to the public on the Internet within 24 hours. The Assembly and state Senate currently record some, but not all, hearings.
Three-day wait period on legislation changes. 89 percent of the poll takers said they would favor a rule requiring proposed new laws be made available to the public in writing at least 72 hours before the final vote. This would seemingly prevent last-minute changes, and perhaps, some gut-and-amend bills.
LAO bill analysis. 82 percent said bill analyses should be written by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, not legislative staff.
The Institute for Advanced Technology and Public Policy, under the leadership of director Sam Blakeslee, next week plans to officially launch the Digital Democracy Project, which will provide a searchable database of all legislative hearings.
"This package of reforms [in the poll] is strongly supported by the public and would significantly empower citizens to better understand and engage in the legislative process," said Blakeslee, who is a former state senator.
