From KTVB-TV
As Sunshine Week opened in Idaho and nationwide on Monday, March 18, 2025, Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane and State Controller Brandon Woolf talked with KTVB-TV about the importance of open public records and making public information in Idaho easily accessible to the public.
“You have a right to know what your government’s up to,” McGrane told KTVB reporter Joe Parris on the station’s “The 208” show.”
Said Woolf, “Obscurity is the best friend of conspiracy.” When people are left wondering what their government is hiding and what’s really going on, trust erodes and conspiracies rise, he said. Woolf advocated for “changing that culture, that mindset, to say: We’re open.”
His office does that in part through its “Transparent Idaho” (LINK: https://transparent.idaho.gov/ ) transparency site, where large amounts of state and local government financial data is available to anyone who cares to look it up. McGrane’s office is in charge of the state’s Sunshine Laws on campaign finance and lobbying registration, and is working to make that data easy to access through new tools, data visualizations, and more through the office’s Campaign Finance Sunshine Portal. (LINK: https://voteidaho.gov/campaign-finance-portal/ )
Said McGrane, “That’s what our role is, is to make this easy for the public.”
You can watch the full interview here at KTVB.com. (LINK:
Sunshine Week, first launched as a national event in March of 2005, helps educate the public, journalists, lawmakers, and others on the right to know in the U.S. states and federal government. There’s more information about Sunshine Week at sunshineweek.org.
From KTVB-TV