From ColoradoWatchdog.org: Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Nancy Rice asked the Legislature last week for more tax money, but afterwards declined to discuss why the judiciary exempted itself from state open records laws, including how her department spends the hundreds of millions of tax dollars it currently receives.
“The decision has been made not to interview, not to give an interview, and I am not going to do so now, thank you,” said Rice, repeatedly walking away and ignoring questions on the department transparency policy as her colleagues tried to block Watchdog.org from asking questions.
State Rep. Tim Dore, an Elizabeth Republican who sits on the House Judiciary Committee that granted Rice’s request for more than $600,000 tax dollars for a new judge in the 12th judicial district, said the judicial department should be subject to state open records laws like all other government branches.
“There’s no reason to have different structures when it comes to transparency between different branches of government at the state,” said Dore, adding he hadn’t heard of the ruling that self-exempted the judiciary until Watchdog.org told him about it.
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