Legislators should do our business in the open too

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To the Editor:

The League of Women Voters of Martha’s Vineyard supports the expansion of the state’s open-meeting law to the state Senate and House of Representatives.

Every town board, town committee, and school committee in Martha’s Vineyard is subject to the state’s open-meeting law, requiring that their business be conducted in public. The state legislature thought transparency was important enough to pass that open-meeting law.

But the House and Senate designated one exception to that transparency guideline — the legislature itself. The recent spectacle of an amendment to the casino gambling bill being hashed out behind the closed doors of the Democratic caucus reinforces the need to pass legislation requiring the legislature itself to be subject to the open-meeting law.

The League of Women Voters of Martha’s Vineyard urges voters to contact our state Rep. Tim Madden and state Sen. Dan Wolf and express your support for subjecting the legislature to the same open-meeting rules imposed on all other government bodies.

Diane Purvis

Voter Services Chairman

League of Women Voters of Martha’s Vineyard