Texas Supreme Court limits open government law, GHP can keep books closed. Mark Collette, HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)
The Texas Supreme Court on Friday limited the public's right to know about private groups that get government funds.
In a 6-3 opinion, the court sided with the Greater Houston Partnership, agreeing that GHP doesn't have to open its check registers even though it received funds from the city of Houston and other local governments worth about $1 million per year.
This is a bad decision for Texans in terms of government accountability and transparency. Unfortunately it was decided during a time where all of the oxygen is being sucked out of the news cycle by other forces.
Perhaps someday this will be given a full review and treatment by Texas Lock-Step Political Media, but don't hold your breath. In many cases the people writing the articles are friends with the defendants in the case and have no interest in seeing any kind of review of these pseudo-government agencies.
That's too bad.
