A disturbing move to keep Maine people in the dark about the political process has been proposed in LD 1805, a bill that would put several state documents off limits from Freedom of Access Act requests.

Per the bill, the following broadly defined documents would be unavailable via a FOA request: Proposed legislation, reports and working papers of the governor and his office. The documents would not be available to the public until they are publicly distributed or until the end of the legislative session for which they were created.

Maine already has a similar law in place to exempt legislative papers and reports, which are not public record until signed; and for legislative working papers, drafts and memoranda, which become public only after the session ends.

Taking the exemption to the level of the governor’s office, however, is much different and will be a significant step backwards in government accessibility. The governor, unlike the Legislature, actually executes laws and implements programs. The wording of this broad law would leave it up to the governor’s discretion to decide what “working documents” would not be accessible to the public. As well, this bill itself came from Gov. LePage’s office, which should give people pause as to why he really wants to close the door on these documents.

Gov. LePage had asked the Right to Know committee back in July 2011 to review the FOA parameters on government business and cited concerns about some FOA requests being made just to “gum up the work” of the governor’s office, as some broad, time-consuming requests were made and the information was not later made public. In his letter, he also cites requests for the Blaine House grocery list as an example of a FOA request that goes too far, violating his private life.

It’s no doubt that FOA requests take time to answer, from digging through thousands of emails to photocopying and researching to find the information requested, but government staff are paid $10 an hour for this work. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to separate those requests that are allegedly made to irritate the office staff from those that are legitimate. Getting into such a process of deciding who, and under what circumstances a citizen can have a request filled would quickly render the FOA impotent.

As for access to private matters such as the governor’s grocery list, we can see some room for debate. The state has many public employees, and they are all granted some personal privacy even though we, as taxpayers, effectively sign their checks. Documents that deal with government business, however, have nothing to do with LePage’s personal life, and there is no reason those should be off limits.

As taxpayers, we want to be able to have access to learn about the political process because the decisions made in Augusta affect us all. The American Civil Liberties Union of Maine has noted that if this bill is passed, the public would be shut out from many important documents.

Shenna Bellows, executive director of the ACLU of Maine, said the public should be concerned that under this bill, the governor could keep secret such information as: Program performance data, task force reports, and information about cost overruns or status. While such information isn’t usually sought out by the average citizen, it’s important to have it available for review just in case one of us gets interested in the background of an issue when it begins to impact our lives. Also, investigative reporters need access to these documents to do their job of informing the public of how their money is being used. It’s telling that the Right to Know Advisory Committee that reviewed this bill was not in unanimous support of this bill, with all of the participating journalists vehemently against it.

Republicans who support this measure now should remember that it will apply to all future governors, not only LePage, and if the state swings Democratic or otherwise in the next election, they may feel differently about being shut out from Statehouse documents.

We urge our legislators to reject this bill in the name of public access. Freedom of information is a hallmark of our great democracy, one that is by the people, of the people and for the people. The more openness in government, the better ”“ it keeps people honest.