Practical Steps to Boost NY Government Transparency

March 11, 2026
Practical Steps New York Can Take Now to Boost the Transparency of Our State and Local Governments
 

Ahead of Sunshine Week – a national celebration of the importance of public records and open government – Reinvent Albany offers these immediate, practical steps the Governor, Legislature, and Judiciary can take to increase the transparency of our state and local governments. 

Governor

Direct state agencies to use ALL of the features of their GovQA FOIL software, especially allowing agencies to receive electronic appeals, as well as the “Archives” feature allowing records disclosed under FOIL to be published on their websites. Only two of the 20 state agencies we looked at in our “Listening to FOIL 2026” report accepted electronic appeals via GovQA software – this could be activated at the click of button for those already on the platform. State taxpayers are paying $650,000 a year for GovQA, and agencies controlled by the Governor are not turning on basic features designed to help the public!

State Senate and Assembly

Pass Bills Strengthening Freedom of Information Law

The Legislature should build on its support for FOIL legislation in 2025 and pass these bills:

Pass Major Overhaul of Open Meetings Law Before It Expires

The Legislature should also pass legislation supported by 38 organizations updating the Open Meetings Law: A3615 (Simone) / S1027 (May) to require hybrid meetings and close loopholes. The COVID-era videoconferencing provisions sunset on July 1, 2026, and the Legislature should not miss this opportunity to greatly expand public accessibility to state and local government meetings.

State Senate Confirmation Votes

The State Senate should publish its confirmation votes, including in committee and on the floor. Reinvent Albany published these votes on our own website and released a report in December 2025 showing that other jurisdictions – the U.S. Senate, New York City Council, and the legislatures of the states of California, Pennsylvania, Vermont, North Carolina, and Illinois – all publish confirmation votes on their websites. 

We were encouraged that the Senate spokesperson said the Senate would “identify additional opportunities this legislative session to further strengthen public trust in New York state government,” and followed up with a letter to the Senate Majority Leader requesting an update from the Senate about its plans to publish confirmation votes.  

Judiciary

The Office of Court Administration should get behind The Criminal Court Decision Transparency Act, S3864 (Gianaris) / A4674 (Burdick), which would greatly improve the accessibility of judicial decisions in criminal courts. Reinvent Albany co-published a report with Scrutinize in 2023 that found that at most, only 6% of criminal court decisions are published online, and that criminal court judges effectively decide whether or not to publish their decisions in criminal cases.

In 2026, we believe that it is past time for more judicial decisions to be made public,  with appropriate privacy protections. Importantly, we believe that this can be achieved largely within current resources, as most of these decisions are already written, but not published. Further, oral decisions should be limited and this legislation could encourage judges to issue more written decisions. Additional resource needs would reasonably focus on increasing the capacity of the New York State Law Reporting Bureau to publish more decisions.

Making decisions public is essential for the following reasons:

  • Judicial Assessment: Access to decisions is vital for evaluating a judge’s performance and qualifications during reappointment, reelection, or promotion.
  • Legislative Oversight: Publicly available decisions provide a window for the Legislature to monitor the implementation of criminal law reforms.
  • Legal Insight: Decisions offer valuable insights for appellate courts and attorneys into legal interpretations and trends, but only if they are available for review.