conference committees

We all should be asking the same questions that are in this opinion piece...why all the secrecy around the casino legislation.  Isn't it time for more transparency?  Isn't it time to break the mold on the tired response...'but we've always had closed door conference committee sessions'?

Besides, this is a matter of public interest, and there’s simply no good reason to hide it from the public. There are no national security considerations here. Conference committee members shouldn’t be making any deals in private they’d be ashamed to have made public. [Full Opinion: Enterprise news]

It seems the Conference Committee is having a difficult time coming to agreement on the FY 2012 Budget, which was to be implemented beginning July 1st.  Some people question whether these discussion/debates should be open to the public.

"If you take it out of conference and try to put it in the public realm, then the conferees are never going to get to finishing up the budget within the time frame we need to finish," [Senate President Therese] Murray said."It's been generally known that this is the most difficult budget scenario year in probably a generation," said [Sen. Stephen] Brewer, D-Barre. "Certainly at least since 1980-81, when we had Proposition 2 1/2. There are many financial issues and public policy issues that we are working very diligently on."  [Full Article:  Sentinel and Enterprise]

Now I’m old enough to remember open, around the clock conference committees, and frankly am rather relieved that I do not carry on my back the job of listening to the public debate in the conference committee, listening to the private speculations of conference committee members who might be supporting my clients priorities in executive session, and then trying to weigh the relative importance of those public and private remarks so I could translate it all to my clients and give them an honest guess at what might emerge. Sometimes I guessed right and was a brilliant analyst and sometimes I guessed wrong and was clearly not “in the loop” .

Nobody’s in the Bunker on this Bunker Hill Day -- all the key players in the loop are in the State House trying to pick up a scrap of information from anybody who might know anything about any of the remaining “Big 3” conference committees (Ethics, Transportation and Budget).