Raleigh Dispatch: Secrecy edition
So the meaning of getting “Googled” has changed around here. No longer is it a mark of self-absorbed narcissism - “Dude, are you Googling yourself again?” – or online information finding – “I’ll just Google it.”
Nope. From here on out, the new usage seems to be more along the lines of, “Man, that stinks! We totally got Googled on that deal.”
And while the Google deal may win awards for hubris and outlandish expectations – expecting 170 legislators not to not talk about why they’re tweaking the state’s tax laws is beyond optimistic – it’s not the only time that state officials have been asked to clam up and fork over.
Just as everyone was getting all cranky about Google last week, honorables at every level of government were celebrating the arrival of Honda Jet. Compared to Google, the Honda deal is chump change: $6.68 million from the state plus some other goodies from local governments. It didn't even require a change to the state's existing tax law to pull off.
Now, don't get me wrong: I'm not expressing an opinion on the practice of giving incentives itself. If the folks people vote into office want to give away public money to private businesses, that’s legal and so far hasn’t cost anyone at the polls. So who am I to gripe?
But being a scruffy media type, if I do have a bias, it is this: Government ought to conduct its business in an open way, especially when dealing with the public’s treasury. And that doesn’t happen right now with incentive deals.
The $6.68 million in the Honda deal was approved during what the Department of Commerce said was an open meeting of the Economic Investment Committee - not that anyone walking into the room would officially have known what said open meeting was about.
When asked the day before if she could confirm the meeting concerned Honda Jet, a Department of Commerce Spokeswoman wrote this:
“As you know the Dept of Commerce does not discuss whether we are or are not working with any company in any capacity until and if a project is publicly announced. So I cannot even confirm for you that the dept. is talking to HondaJet.”
So let’s say you decided to show up to the meeting on Friday morning and decided to listen in on the off chance that several local governments had already made with the tax dollars and the state was the logical last - and most generous - stop in the economic incentive rodeo.
First off, you would be literally listening in. None of the five members of the investment committee, including Commerce Sec. Jim Fain, would be in the room. They were doing this all by speaker phone.
By the way, the committee is all appointed, not one of these critters is directly responsible to a voter. But I digress.
So let’s say you did come to the meeting. If you were hoping to get some insight on how the decision was made, forget about it. When the time for comments or questions came before the vote, not one member of the committee really had any. That’s because the deal had been discussed behind closed doors and at least among the committee and Department of Commerce staffers there was nothing left to say.
And lastly, let’s say you as a private citizen had a bad feeling about the deal and were thinking that the state might be getting, um, Googled. So you request some of the most basic documents concerning the deal so you might try to talk some sense into the committee. Sorry, you’ll have to wait a few days until after it’s announced. Commerce Department lawyers “review” the documents to make sure they’re not releasing any of the company’s trade secrets or such.
So you’ll forgive me if I have a real hard time getting worked up over the bend-over-backward nature and secrecy of the Google deal. That sort of thing has happened on a smaller but still irksome scale dozens of times over in the past few years. In fact, it will be hard to say whether Honda Jet is giving us the ol' Google for a few days.
The fix, of course, is probably pretty simple. Here’s my suggestion.
Once the investment committee announces a deal for state tax dollars, it shouldn’t be official and sealed quite then. However, the records surrounding that deal should become public that very second. In fact, let’s post them to the Internet.
Next, the deal should have to sit, open to public scrutiny for 10 days. I don’t know if it would have gotten shot down or not, but do you think the Google deal would have had as easy of a ride if 8 million or so rank and file citizens had gotten their whack at that piñata?
And lastly, some group of elected leaders should have to vote on the deal in public at the end of those ten days to confirm the deal. I nominate the Council of State. They may not like dealing with the death penalty, but contracts and negotiations are right up their ally.
If a deal is bad enough to raise a public stink, I’m pretty sure voters could Google their friendly local member of the council of state, who would either have to reject the deal or risk the wrath of the electorate.
That’s only one way to go about things. I bet there are better ones and that some folks might have some suggestions on how to do it better. And unlike the Department of Commerce when dealing with public money, we scruffy press types are given to putting our ideas out there to public scrutiny. Your thoughts are welcome at the comments link below.
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Raleigh Dispatch is an online only column that appears every Monday during the legislative session.