Culver and Legislators Need to Learn Scandal is Symptom, Closed Government is the Disease

The recently discovered lack of oversight/apparent abuse/poor management of the Iowa Film Office raises many questions for Governor Culver and his administration. The Governor has rarely ever been accused of being quick on his feet, so it is likely to take some time before we receive many answers. While we wait, it should be easy to come to one conclusion – if government were more open, scandals like this would be less common.

Only after this story broke did State officials release information about the 157 film projects that have applied for tax credit and the amounts of tax credits awarded to projects that have completed filming. By the way, the 22 tax credit awards ranged from $60,000 to $5.8 million. As recently as August 6, the State would not give the public that information.

Those in office love to hide behind public record laws. They seem to believe that if they alone have access to information, they will be more powerful than their opponents. They will control the cards. Maybe they do, at least until the house of cards begins to fall exposing mismanagement or, worse, corruption.

How many times must the public’s house be harmed and politicians scream for transparency before we learn the lesson that open government makes for better government and actually do something to improve the situation?

Government operates better when the people are kept informed. When bureaucrats are allowed to create power centers built on the control of information or are able to spend money in the murkiness of complicated or convoluted budgets, bad things often happen. And before you say I am picking on Culver, the legislators who are beating the Governor about the shoulders for not being open are not being straight with their constituents either. The General Assembly has the power to enact laws that demand open government and time and again they resist doing so.

While the Film Office scandal may be the latest calamity that could have been prevented by more sunshine in government, let’s hope action is taken in the Legislature this year to make it the last.

This entry was first published as a Des Moines Register blog entry.