Bill would make it harder to see if state officials have conflicts of interest

Residents who want to know if top state officials have conflicts of interest could only view disclosure forms by visiting the Government Accountability Board office in Downtown Madison, under a measure passed by the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee.

Open-government groups cried foul, saying the measure, tucked into the massive state budget, would severely restrict public access to the statements of economic interests filed by about 2,400 state officials each year.

Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, issued an alert to his members Friday, calling the move "deeply troubling."

"While there's no doubt some public officials would prefer that this information be more difficult to obtain, there is no sound public policy justification for doing so," Lueders says. "This is information that the public has a right to access, to protect the integrity of our public institutions."