What Does the Public Really Want to Know About Public Finance? It’s Not Crystal Clear, but the Public Wants Profit!

Abstract

Throughout the world, freedom of information laws have been put into place to ensure citizens the opportunity to hold their government accountable. In practice, previous literature often finds that private gain or self-serving interests account for most national information requests, crowding out the original accountability-focused intentions of these laws. While there has been some national research around the demand for these information requests, research from a local level has been lacking. Here, data from public records requests to the City of Bellevue, Washington’s Finance and Asset Management department from 2019 to 2023 are analyzed to determine what the public really wants to know about public finance. Local data mirrors the national research, with 71% of the total requests being for private gain; specifically, 47% of all public records requests are procurement-related commercial inquiries.