About Us
"Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made." - Otto von Bismarck, German Prussian politician (1815 - 1898)
Why do bad ideas - as well as good ones - become law in North Carolina? And why do so many fail?
Unlike what we were taught in high school civics class or college political science, what actually goes on behind the scenes in state government is sometimes a tale of good intentions gone bad - where money or political ambition can trump even the most honorable objectives. Many elected leaders do the right things - and the public often benefits from those noble efforts. But sometimes, bad ideas become law, and other times, even the best of ideas fail to ever see the light of day.
The Capitol Monitor aims to shed daylight into the darkest corners of our "citizen" government in an effort to encourage our elected leaders to remember that the best public policies are those that can withstand the bright radiance of sunshine. We'll provide a behind-the-scenes look at how public policy happens in North Carolina, summarizing the roles of the various players, including grant-making foundations, advocacy organizations, public leaders, and other individuals, in influencing policy-making. Then we'll "follow-the-money" so that citizens can see how their tax dollars are managed in our state.
While there are many forums to which a citizen can turn to learn about state government, some stories seem to drag on forever, making it difficult for even the most watchful watchdog to keep up-to-date. The Capitol Monitor will cover analysis and research in a succinct, encapsulated format so that citizens can keep up without having to catch up on years of press reports to get the background. For readers who crave detail, the Capitol Monitor will direct you to those reports, reporters, and reporting organizations which have performed the critical background research to chronicle the complete story.
It's all about transparency. Understanding that there is so much information and so little time, we hope that the Capitol Monitor can become a portal to which citizens can go to know more about how their dollars are used to create public policy in North Carolina, making them better equipped to communicate with their elected officials, and to make informed choices as taxpayers.
"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." - Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer & physicist (1564 - 1642)
