Can't Hide a Lack of Transparency

The results of the State Integrity Investigation—a project of the Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity, and Public Radio International—were recently released, and Maryland got a D- overall, ranking 40 out of 50 states. The investigation noted that "in Maryland’s 'clubby' Capitol, there’s little transparency, procurement policies are byzantine, and audit results are often ignored."

And an accompanying report made special mention of the fact that Maryland "is the only state in the country that requires an in-person visit to the state capitol to request and view financial disclosure information."

Here's how we fared in each of the 12 categories: Public Access to Information (F), Political Financing (C), Executive Accountability (F), Legislative Accountability (F), Judicial Accountability (D+), State Budget Process (C-), State Civil Service Management (D-), Procurement (D-), Internal Auditing (C+), Lobbying Disclosure (D-), State Pension Fund Management (F), Ethics Enforcement Management (D), State Insurance Commissions (F), and Redistricting (D-).

Ouch.