Why digital public records matter
Everyone knows that the government is inefficient. The private sector is almost always better at doing just about anything than the public sector. The good news is that the government in the United States is one of the more efficient ones in the world due to the incredible transparency it provides about its activities. Public records laws in the U.S. are some of the best in the world and the media uses them to make sure that the general populace is informed of government excess. Unfortunately, most of the records and information that the government provides is only available in physical formats. Imagine how much more transparent the government would be if there were a digital database of official public records requests that could be accessed by anyone online. One place that leads the country in this regard is the state of Texas. Public records in Texas are available online in most cases. Most of the government offices and agencies in the Lone Star State offer digital databases of records that can be searched by the general public or by authorized individuals when there are restrictions on access. This is designed to keep the government in the state transparent and to keep the cost of accessing public records low.