And you’ll be surprised at which state was ranked #1
(Fox News) State governments lack transparency and accountability to citizens, and remain at high risk for corruption, according to a new study of all 50 statehouses.
Not a single state received an A in the State Integrity Investigation ranking, a product of the Center for Public Integrity, Public Radio International and Global Integrity.
Only five states got rankings of B, led by a surprising recipient: New Jersey. It got a B-plus, with an overall score of 87 out of a possible 100.
Color me shocked.
Rounding out the top five states were: Connecticut (B, 86), Washington state (B-minus, 83), California (B-minus, 81) and Nebraska (B-minus, 80).
Nineteen states got grades of C, and 18 got a D. Eight states got an ‘F,’ with grades of 59 or lower: North Dakota, Michigan, South Carolina, Maine, Virginia, Wyoming, South Dakota and Georgia.
However, there does seem to be an interesting bias, namely, states with lots and lots of prosecutions seemed to have gotten better ratings because they are supposedly Doing Something, while those which didn’t have a lot of issues were ranked worse. And, then there is this
Many of the states at the bottom of the rankings, meanwhile, are sparsely-populated Western or Plains states like Idaho (40th), Wyoming (48 th ) and the Dakotas (North Dakota is number 43 and South Dakota comes in at 49). There, libertarianism roots, a small-town, neighborly approach to government and the honest belief that “everybody knows everybody†has overridden any perceived need for strong protections in law.
So, it’s not saying problems are occurring, just that the mean ole’ small government approach is bad. Uh huh.
Still, that should not detract from the central point that government with too much power and little accountability to the citizenry is a big problem. There is “lax enforcement and no oversight.” Massive conflicts of interest. Poor transparency. Loopholes. Little public access. Yet, liberals want more government.
