Three years into her administration, Governor Kathy Hochul's transparency plans are falling short, according to "good government" critics who want a more open, honest, and transparent government in the Empire State.
Governor Hochul laid out plans at the start of her term pledging “a new era of greater transparency and accountability."
She directed heads of New York State agencies, authorities, and boards to assess and evaluate their existing policies and practices and create a plan detailing their new efforts to increase transparency and accessibility.
Reinvent Albany, in their latest report on government transparency, criticizes the Hochul administration for lack of progress at almost every level. Promised improvements in speeding up Freedom of Information Act requests and providing access to government operational information and data have not come to fruition.
The public has a right to know, and to know more quickly, and New York still lags in providing important accountability information to the public.
“NYS Agency Transparency Plans All Fizzle, No Sizzle,” says Reinvent Albany on X. “We reviewed the 66 transparency plans submitted by NYS agencies to Gov. Hochul in 2024, finding them generally incomplete and underwhelming.”
“NY government transparency has always been poor”, says the report.
“But, it’s getting worse.” The report goes on to say that despite a long history of secrecy in government, and promises from Hochul to do better, little progress has been made – most especially in key areas of providing information to the public.
"We think that's an unfortunate step backward with these plans," says Rachel Fauss, a senior policy advisor at Reinvent Albany. "Transparency affects every area of state government in the service it provides."
Even fewer state agencies are reporting on transparency metrics now than were in 2021.
According to the report, 66 agencies were tracked, and more than half did not provide information on how they comply with transparency mandates, including the Open Meetings Law, Freedom of Information Law, and an Executive Order related to open data.
Despite Hochul’s directive, only 65% of agencies complied with providing FOIL updates. Six agencies still haven't published their transparency plan for 2024, including the governor's office.
NY agencies were expected to enhance transparency in nine areas: social media reporting, timeliness of legally required reports, and ensuring agencies utilize the Project Sunlight database to track meetings between government officials, lobbyists, and businesses.
"In every substantive area, we looked at agencies reported less information, and didn't give the governor or the public an idea of how they were going to improve transparency," Fauss said. "So the plans were less complete in all the substantive areas that we reviewed.
The New York State Legislature is considering several bills that would compel compliance, particularly regarding FOIL requests and closing loopholes for public notification of meetings.