Let the sun shine in this Sunshine Week

Let the sun shine in! This is national Sunshine Week, a time set aside each year to promote transparency in all level of government. It is an important reminder that from city hall to Congress, government works best when it does not keep secrets. That our elected officials conduct the people’s business with accountability and transparency. Much progress has been made in this digital age, when we can access government documents, meeting notices and minutes with the click of a mouse. But more needs to be done. In Wisconsin, members of the state legislature remain exempt from the state’s open meetings law. There should not be one standard for the statehouse and one for the school board. We have seen, shamefully, how this played out. When lawmakers in Madison worked to draw legislative boundaries, they did so in secret. No members of the public could witness the process. The lawmakers who forged the deal had to sign a contract promising they wouldn’t even talk about their closed-door work to benefit one political party over another. That is hardly accountable or transparent. We must insist that the power belongs to the people. So let the sun shine in. A little more sunshine feels good, especially this time of year.