Category Archives: Center for Public Integrity

Connecticut Gets Downgraded, But Maintains Passing Grade for Accountability – CTNewsJunkie.com

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By Christine Stuart

In a data-driven assessment of state government accountability and transparency, Connecticut received a C minus from the Center for Public Integrity.

That’s worse than the B it received from the organization in 2012 — the first time the center did a report. While the two scores are not directly comparable because of changes made to update the project and its methodology, many advocates say the decline is indisputable regardless of the changed methodology.

Connecticut was the third most transparent and accountable state in the nation, but its declining score [Read More]

Study: Government Transparency Slipping Across Nation – Hartford Courant

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By Jon Lender

A new national study of integrity in government shows the state slipping from a solid B grade to a lackluster C- since 2012 — but things are so dismal around the rest of the country that Connecticut still ranks third overall out of the 50 states, according to the 2015 State Integrity Investigation by the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Center for Public Integrity.

Alaska (C), California (C-) and Connecticut (C-) ranked first, second and third, and were the only states to score higher than D+ in the study that gave 11 states flunking grades based on a series of criteria measuring openness and accountability in government institutions and procedures.

The “data-driven assessment” found that “in state after state, open records laws are laced with exemptions and part-time legislators and agency officials engage in glaring conflicts of interests and cozy relationships with lobbyists. Meanwhile, feckless, understaffed watchdogs struggle to enforce laws as porous as honeycombs.” [Read More]