Both the state Freedom of Information Commission and the state's leading right-to-know advocacy group warned Friday that a proposed 20 percent budget cut for the commission — and the possible transfer of its public information officer into Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s office — could greatly weaken state government transparency.
But the Senate chair of the General Assembly’s Appropriations Committee, West Hartford Democrat Beth Bye, warned that the FOIC’s funding is far from settled, and many alternatives remain on the table.
“We are chipping away at the commission’s independence,” Colleen Murphy, executive director of the FOIC, said. “The beauty of the commission is that it doesn’t have to answer to any political party, philosophy, candidate or individual official.” Continue…
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