Gov Walker finding new ways to reject records requests

Wisconsin’s Governor is proving to be pretty creative, when it comes to coming up with reasons to deny public record requests. Scott Walker had a hand in a misguided effort to exempt lawmakers from the public records laws as part of the budget process. When he was asked to provide a list of visitors to the Governor’s Mansion during the time he was running for president, Walker used the argument that the records were part of a “deliberative process” and therefore not a matter of public record. Now Walker has found another rationale for denying a public records request. Walker is saying certain records are “transitory” and not only don’t have to be provided, but don’t even exist. At issue is the lending of $500,000 to a company whose owner gave the maximum donation to the Walker campaign. Among the hundreds of pages of emails was a reference to a text message between the company owner and a state official. When media outlets made a public records request for a transcript of that text, a Walker spokesman says because the text is transitory, it doesn’t have to be shared. Public records experts say that defense doesn’t hold water. If they’re texting about a state loan, that should be a matter of record. Just because the communication came in the form of a text, it shouldn’t matter. Walker has clearly gone to great lengths to prevent the public from having access to a number of his records, which leaves us wondering just what it is he has to hide.