This is the tail end of Sunshine Week.
No, it doesn’t have anything to do with the weather or the solar system. Sunshine Week is a time to put a spotlight on government openness.
In South Dakota, that kind of sunshine often gets mixed reviews. After the latest legislative session, the reviews were good.
Gov. Kristi Noem championed and signed into law a reporter shield law. That law will keep newspaper and broadcast journalists in the state from being compelled to reveal confidential sources or turn over to authorities unpublished notes or photos.
It’s unlikely that the law will be used too often, but it becomes the closest thing South Dakota has to a whistleblower protection law.
The Legislature also voted to let more light shine on government lawsuit settlements. The bill ensures when taxpayer funding is used to settle a lawsuit that taxpayers will get an accounting.
Noem, who was in favor of the legislation, has often said that when taxpayers spend money on a lawsuit settlement, they are entitled to a receipt.
In the Community News Service story about committee passage of the bill, Sen. Arthur Rusch, R-Vermillion, noted the recent confidential lawsuit settlement by the Brookings School District. He said the confidential nature of the settlement kept taxpayers in the dark as to whether the district paid $100 or $100,000 to settle the lawsuit.
The Legislature should be applauded for protecting reporters and opening up government lawsuit settlements. However, their attempts at government openness are tinged with more than a little hypocrisy.
The same Republican lawmakers who voted for these government openness measures spend a certain amount of time each day during the legislative session working on the people’s business in secret.
GOP lawmakers who championed the reporter shield law and lawsuit openness meet in a closed session called a caucus each day before their regular session. With the caucus closed to the public, the lawmakers, who have a super majority in each chamber, are free to discuss the merits of legislation and how it should be handled without the prying eyes and ears of the media or the public.
Before Republican lawmakers get too many kudos for opening up government law-suits, they should examine their own tradition of discussing the people’s business behind closed doors.
Billy McMacken is the publisher of The Brookings Register. Contact him at bmcmacken@brookingsregister.com.
