The people of Wisconsin have historically been hard working, honest, generous and loyal. But perhaps our greatest failing has been our tendency to place trust in people who have not earned it, and in fact abuse it.

 Citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government to allow for effective public oversight.  Government should be open to public scrutiny and susceptible to public opinion.

In a free society, transparency 

is government's obligation to share information with citizens. It is at the heart of how citizens hold their public officials accountable.

While private corporations are free to regulate the speech that occurs on their platforms and
choose who they will or will not hire or transact business with, they are not entitled to enrich
themselves with tax dollars paid by the same people whom they are denying the exercise of
Constitutionally protected speech, political activity, and gainful employment. The remedy to
this problem is the establishment of “Free Speech States” with state-level legislation that

Prohibits the Following:

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1. Government Spending on Social Networks that Censor Legal Speech.

2. Contracting with Corporations Engaged in De-Platforming.

3. Conducting Business with Blacklisting Financial Institutions.

4. Contracting with Corporations that Engage in Political Employment
   Discrimination.

5. Investment in Anti-Free Speech Corporations.

Taxpayer’s must take steps to protect themselves from serious risks on multiple fronts. Racine’s failed developments projects Machinery Row, Porter’s Project, Arena, to name a few have threaten the long-term growth and financial health of our community. While continued failures can bring needed services to a halt. HOT GOVERNMENT calls for an independent accounting firm to conduct a complete forensic audit to determine if these developments have been lawfully managed.

Public records are critical to democracy and to our ability as citizens to hold our government accountable for its actions. HOT GOVERNMENT calls for a public records request system. The public can quickly and very easily request the documents they need as well as be notified automatically that the process has begun. Citizens make their document requests through an online form and receive automatic status updates whenever action is taken on their request. The responses and communication are visible online in real time.

Transparency is best fostered when citizens can access and read through city information in an easily-accessible format. We want to know where our tax dollar are going, how safe our city is, and how well the city is performing. Our current online system in Racine is difficult and time-consuming wading through a bunch of data hoping to find an answer only to be frustrated. HOT GOVERNMENT calls for an open financial transparency data plan. First creating open checkbook data and dashboards of fiscal information where citizens can track their tax dollars in real time. This transparency should continue into trash collecting, public works, parks department, GPS real time tracking, mobile apps and text messaging reminders to citizens with pertinent information and more.

The City of Racine through a contract with Time Warner /Spectrum receives over $900,000 each year and two cable access channels for the public benefit. The cable channel CAR-25/Belle TV has been sorely underused, and revenues misplaced. What was once an award-winning effort among municipal broadcasts was restructured with gross ineffectiveness and is now inadequate and embarrassing. HOT GOVERNMENT calls to restore CAR-25/Belle TV and the revenues collected to staff and fully function the underused cable channel to broadcast virtually all municipal government meetings and more community generated content.