Sunshine’s good for budget health, as well

• Reprints

Updated: November 24, 2011 3:34AM

Sunshine Week may sound like an alluring Caribbean vacation, but it actually is a national initiative to further open government. News media, nonprofit organizations, libraries, schools and others interested in protecting the public’s right to know participate.

Sunshine Week began in 2002 when Florida legislators sought to weaken that state’s Freedom of Information Act with hundreds of exemptions. A feisty reaction from the public led to defeat of the measures — and an annual weeklong reminder of the importance of public access.

You may never have filed a Freedom of Information Act request with a local government, but we can assure you thousands do. From journalists to business owners to lawyers and average citizens, FOIA is a law that furthers democracy, whether the search is based on a mayor’s salary or a property transaction.

We are fortunate in Illinois to have an attorney general who advocates access to government records. Lisa Madigan in 2009 worked with legislators to strengthen FOIA and the Open Meetings Act, making it more difficult for government bodies to stall or block record-release requests. She created the permanent position of public access counselor in her office to deal exclusively with FOIA and open meetings. Our own columnist, Phil Kadner, was instrumental in bringing Madigan to that decision, and she has publicly said so.

The changes her office spearheaded make it easier and faster for average citizens and journalists alike to obtain public records.

Frankly, it’s been a real pain for local government bodies. During a Sunshine Week project initiated by the SouthtownStar that you’ll be reading this week, we found many elected officials frustrated by the time and cost of providing FOIA documents. During a time when municipalities and school districts are facing severe budget cuts, it is difficult to adequately address piles of such requests.

We understand. But we also firmly believe the energy spent is worth the pain. The public deserves access to public documents, records and reports compiled by the governments we fund through our tax dollars.

But strapped municipalities already have a way to cut costs and cut time. Cut out the middleman. Quit asking people to file requests for what could be made public in the first place.

We suggest more government bodies make records available on their Web sites, which would decrease FOIA requests and help streamline workloads for employees.

Put contracts online. Put your check registry online. Put tax-increment financing district information online. Put payroll information online. Put police reports online.

In an era of Internet-based everything, there’s no reason it cannot be done. In some cases, it already has. Former Comptroller Dan Hynes placed all state contracts on his office’s Web site years ago. DuPage County lists all FOIA-eligible expenditures on its Web site, from coffee purchases to pay stubs.

It can be done, and it should.

We support Sunshine Week. We thank our government leaders who support it. And we ask them to continue efforts to ease access to public information. It’s in their best interests, too.