Wisconsin Blind Eye

 

In 2007, state leaders inexplicably thought it was a good idea to privatize public transparency and thus created WisconsinEye.

In December, WisconsinEye announced that it was ending live coverage and closing its archive of previous sessions of the state legislature because it was a victim of Trumpnomics:

“Due to extreme competition and a complete collapse in private funding — marked by donor fatigue, competing nonprofit campaigns, record-breaking political fundraising and economic uncertainty — WisconsinEye’s website is unavailable,” a message on the WisEye website states. “Without consistent annual funding…. citizens, legislators, legislative staff, the governor’s administration, agency leadership and staff, trade associations, attorneys and the courts, local government officials, journalists and all print, cable, television and radio news outlets, businesses, nonprofit organizations — all lose the only reliable and proven source of unfiltered State Capitol news and state government proceedings.”

Now, WisconsinEye has resorted to using GoFundMe to raise $250,000 in order to secure state funding to resume providing services.  As of the time of this writing, they were just under $6,000.  

While WisconsinEye is trying to get back above water financially, the Republicans in the state legislature are busy trying to take advantage of the situation by ramming through malevolent bills while no one is watching.

And to make sure no one is watching, the Republicans have "rediscovered" that their rules don't allow citizens or even fellow legislators to record their misdeeds.

What needs to be done is that the state needs to bring this service back in-house. The City of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, and many other local governments provide this service for their constituents, and there's no reason for the state not to do so.  It would bring them into compliance with transparency rules and also maintain a public record.

But the Republicans don't want that because transparency leads to accountability, and accountability leads to them winning fewer elections.