R.I. is No. 2 in new ‘better-government’ ranking

CHICAGO – The Better Government Association ranks Rhode Island No. 2 nationwide for laws relating to transparency, accountability and limits in government, in a report released today. Connecticut is 14th nationwide and Massachusetts 20th in the new rankings.
New Jersey is No. 1 in the nonpartisan watchdog group’s BGA-Alper Integrity Index, an update of the initial report issued in 2002. Hawaii was No. 3, followed by Washington, Louisiana, Nebraska, Texas, Arkansas, Maryland and No. 10 Colorado.
The index – described by the BGA as “the only tool that attempts to measure all 50 states across a number of criteria relating to good government” – ranks states on their performance across five legal categories: open meetings; open records; whistleblower; campaign finance; and conflict of interest.
The better the law, the higher the score. “For the BGA, ‘better’ was usually defined as lower limits, more transparency and higher penalties,” the group said. “These laws are representative of a state’s responsiveness to its citizens, and its commitment to maintaining ethics in government,” said BGA Executive Director Jay Stewart. “Just as the 50 states compete to see which one is the most business-friendly, they should also compete over their respective commitment to governmental integrity.”
By issue area, the Ocean State ranked third in open meetings laws, ninth in open records laws; 19th in whistleblower laws; 16th in campaign finance laws; and 15th in conflict-of-interest laws.
“Rhode Island should be congratulated that it beat out 48 other states,” Stewart said. “However, there is clearly a lot of room for improvement. If you look at the percentage score, Rhode Island received 63 percent – the equivalent of a ‘D’ letter grade – hardly a cause for celebration.”
By comparison, Connecticut – 20th in open meetings laws, 17th in open records laws, 32nd in whistleblower laws, ninth in campaign finance laws and 15th in conflict-of-interest laws – achieved an overall score of 57 percent, “the equivalent of an ‘F’ letter grade,” Stewart said. And Massachusetts – 37th in open meetings laws, 42nd in open records, 28th in whistleblower laws, second in campaign finance laws and 13th in conflict-of-interest laws – received 54 percent overall.
Even No. 1 New Jersey – which ranked 29th in open meetings laws, first in open records laws, 15th in whistleblower laws, 11th in campaign finance laws and 10th in conflict-of-interest laws – achieved only “a modest 65-percent overall score,” the group noted in its report.
“We hope that legislators and leaders in Rhode Island will use the BGA-Alper Integrity Index as a tool to spur reform and upgrade their laws in regard to transparency, accountability and limits,” Stewart said. “Better yet, we hope Rhode Island comes up with a tough new standard that then becomes the measure against which other states will be judged.”
The report is based largely on data compiled and scored by the BGA itself, although the watchdog group said it “relied on the work of the Center for Public Integrity in regard to conflict of interest laws.”
The Better Government Association, founded in 1923, is a nonpartisan watchdog organization dedicated to combating waste, fraud and corruption in government via research, litigation and public-policy initiatives. Additional information – including the full BGA-Alper Integrity Index, made possible in part by the support of Chicago-based business, financial and insurance agency Alper Services LLC – is available at www.bettergov.org.