New York State’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), adopted with much fanfare more than 50 years ago as a post-Watergate reform, has, because of a lack of enforcement, failed to live up to the high hopes of its supporters.

The public had expectations that in this new era of transparency, the actions of its governmental bodies would be out in the open for all to see. Not so.

Problem was, the new law had no teeth; there were no penalties for avoiding it or, in too many cases, simply ignoring the law. Good government groups lobbied the legislature for stricter rules with penalties, but to no avail. As evidence of the cynicism at the time, the legislature exempted itself from FOIL.

One Republican state senator said it most candidly at the time: Why should we pass laws to sue ourselves?

It appears they missed the point, but did they? Government, on every level, is notoriously secretive. Believe not a one who declares, “We need more transparency in government.” They want less. It is simply the nature of politics.

Which brings us to a recent request from Kingston’s newly minted corporation counsel for permission to hire an individual for the specific purpose of processing FOIL requests. According to a Freeman report, new Corporation Counsel Rebecca Mantello advised the Common Council’s Finance Committee that the city received 533 FOIL requests last year, almost a 50 percent increase from the year previous. The city, she advised, is on track to log 750 by the end of this year.

There has been no explanation offered as to why this sudden surge has occurred, but certainly some of it can be explained by a certain litigant against the city using the FOIL law, it is alleged, to hassle city government in a form of so-called “lawfare.” Thankfully, the city and the litigant declared peace earlier this year.

Mantello’s own testimony before the committee, which voted 3-2 to send the request to the full council, would seem to demonstrate that the city might be handling that huge volume of FOIL requests just fine without any additional help. Sixty-five such requests from last year remain open, she said, and 94 from this year.

And how might the prospect of another addition to the payroll sit with already beleaguered city taxpayers? Citizens, unite!

Hiring another six-figures-plus employee (including benefits) to address a problem that may or may not exist is tax and spend on speed.

Placed in context, the city finance officer warned the council last week that the 2027 mayoral budget, to be placed before the aldermen in about three weeks, will require yet another override of the state-mandated 2 percent cap on property taxes. Comptroller John Tuey offered a figure of around 3 percent but wasn’t clear on whether that would be in addition to the 2 percent cap.

The property tax, like FOIL, is yet another shell game. All that’s required to override the tax cap is a majority vote of the governing board of any municipality, plus one.

It probably won’t do much good, but the council and other municipalities might better serve their constituents by petitioning their state legislators to reform FOIL. Sarahana Shrestha and Michelle Hinchey get lots of free press. Let’s put them to work for it.

Tague Versus Fraizer

The race for the 51st District state Senate seat features former assemblyman Chris Tague against Delhi political science professor Michele Frazier. The 51st covers eight towns in southwestern Ulster, about 33,000 people. A state Senate district averages about 330,000.

Frazier of Delhi made her first foray into state politics two years ago when she challenged incumbent state senator Peter Oberacker, a candidate for Congress this year against incumbent Josh Riley. It did not go well for the woman of many hats – she’s also a realtor and a lawyer. Pistol Pete – buried in the Senate minority, he was always shooting off his mouth – trounced her by almost 30,000 votes.

Times change. Trump’s here. But Frazier will have a steep climb in this heavily Republican district just to get even.

Oberacker faces similar challenges this time around in running against an incumbent in a purple district. He received rather unpleasant news from his party’s congressional campaign committee this month that they were cutting ties with the would-be congressman because of an apparently “unelectable” candidate. Harsh words, those. Obee (what the farm folk in Schoharie sometimes call him) has been elected as a Republican four times since entering politics in 2018. But some of the shine’s come off after a social media post where he honored an ancestor for his service in World War II. Trouble was, the ancestor fought for the Third Reich.

Oberacker’s campaign team was quick to counter with an “Oh, yeah! The voters will decide in November!” But that’s what campaign teams do.