Our governor is not going to be happy until he gets his hands all the way into our pockets, turns them inside out and shakes out every last penny, lint balls and all.
The New Mexico Press Association and the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government in 2003 fought a task force composed by the governor of various department heads and their select computer geeks. The task force by legislation was trying to create and implement an E-Portal that would be the answer to the governor’s revenue problems and force the public to pay for documents it already owns.
On the surface it sounded very public friendly, which is how it was being peddled. A nice friendly public record enhancer, allowing the public to view any state document on line. Helping the public, streamlining government.
Once it was picked apart, it was clear the governor was creating an enterprise fund, whereby users would pay to get on, pay to access and pay to print public documents. Free inspection was out the window.
This same idea is back in another form, a request for proposal by the tax and revenue department, headed by Rick Homans, with the motor vehicle division being the first recipient of the E-Portal help. That’s because there are a few companies in New Mexico who make a lot of money by buying the motor vehicle data base and then using it to fill clients’ requests for background information. The state wants some of that money. They want to go into that business themselves, in a round about way.
While it’s nice of our governor to be looking out for us and making public access easier, we think this is not the way to do it. By law, public records should be available to the public for inspection. There is no charge for looking. If you want to take a copy home, the public entity, whether it be the motor vehicle department or the secretary of state’s office, should then charge you the cost of the copy. And that doesn’t mean they get to charge a dollar a page. It means what the law states, cost of copy. MVD charges 25 cents.
Homans said Feb. 10 that would still be the case. While the records may remain public short term, should this proposal be awarded and the e-portal set up, the day is coming when public records requestors will be sent to the E-Portal site to get their records.
In this time of alleged ethics reform and “transparency” why is the taxation and revenue department trying this end-run? It was clear six years ago the legislation would probably not hold up to a judicial challenge. That’s why the idea was dropped then. Nothing has changed from a legal standpoint.
We understand the state’s dollar dilemma. Citizens face that same crisis. Tax and rev “leaders” should be looking for ways to relieve the burden on citizens, not trying to force more costs onto them.