Gov. Kathy Hochul was criticized by the New York Coalition for Open Government for failing to mention anything related to open government in her State of the State address.

“The governor proposed addressing the backlog of liquor, license administrations but said nothing about the broken Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) system where members of the public are improperly denied FOIL requests or must wait many months to receive basic information,” according to a press release from the coalition’s president, Williamsville attorney Paul Wolf.

Hochul “proposed actions to strengthen consumer protections and to enhance the Attorney General’s ability to enforce consumer protections. Meanwhile, New York has some of the weakest open government laws in the nation and the Attorney General’s office actually fights against the public on Freedom of Information Law matters.”

The coalition highlighted several pro-open government bills “on the floor” in Albany. Assemblyman Phil Steck has introduced a bill establishing the right to open government in the state Constitution. Steck and Senator John Liu co-sponsored a measure reforming the attorney fee structure for FOIL lawsuits; plaintiffs are normally currently only awarded such fees if they win.

Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal has introduced a bill to create an independent hearing officer system to address open government law complaints. Currently, the only legal recourse for such complaints is to file a lawsuit.