Welcome: The State Integrity Investigation

Sometimes we forget that Planet Albany isn’t alone in the universe.  There are other states plagued by corruption, undemocratic, secretive and unfair governance.  So we were glad to learn that  a coalition of major U.S. philanthropies have joined with national civil society groups together to launch a significant new, internet based, effort to take on corruption in state government.

The State Integrity Investigation “aims to inspire policy changes to promote good government practices. It will rank every state on its risk of corruption by gathering data on a checklist of over 300 risk indicators across fourteen categories of state government as they apply in each state. In early 2012, the Investigation will issue detailed report cards on every state with stories about what practices and processes are performing well in government, and what areas require improvements.” New York’s overall grade isn’t posted, but has been evaluated in fourteen different areas including government procurement and public access to information. We haven’t had a chance to go through most of the ratings, but this site — and this initiative — is worth a look. Check it out.