Gov. Kathy Hochul revealed her executive budget on Tuesday. This massive $233 billion spending plan includes packages to address everything from the housing crisis to swimming pools, but left out one of the state’s major problems: Government transparency.

When Hochul, a Democrat, took office, she pledged that her administration would usher in a new era of government transparency. After her very first address as governor, in fact, Hochul said: “I want people to believe in their government again.”

New York state has better government transparency and open records laws than some other states, but that doesn’t mean much when those laws are unevenly implemented, rarely enforced, purposefully vague and there is no independent hearing system for Freedom of Information Law and Open Meetings Law appeals.

The Center for Public Integrity gave New York a D- ranking in its 2015 State Integrity Investigation, saying that this state is “beset by corruption, backroom deals and voter scorn” and has a “significant ‘enforcement gap,’ which measures the difference between the laws on the books and how well they’re actually implemented.” There has been little significant progress made since.

This problem is not just at the state government level. On Wednesday, the New York State Coalition for Open Government said that there is “documented, large-scale noncompliance with the Open Meetings Law and the Freedom of Information Law at the local level.” The coalition’s statistics are damning, but not surprising to anyone that’s tried to get information from a government agency. Seventy-two percent of towns do not post meeting documents online; 25% of towns do not post meeting minutes or a recording; 39% of counties failed to acknowledge a FOIL request within five business days as required by law; 75% of planning boards do not post meeting documents online; only 25% of villages post meeting minutes online; 35% of villages do not even post a meeting agenda. Out of 158 school district executive session motions reviewed by the coalition, 61% were not in compliance with the Open Meetings Law.

These are the basics of government transparency and accountability — these statistics do not detail just how many records requests are routinely, and perhaps wrongfully, denied across this state, nor how many people have to wait many months to receive the information they are legally allowed to access.

We are living in a time where public trust in government is low. In New York, residents have become accustomed to fighting for basic transparency. We’ve also become accustomed to seeing elected officials brought down by corruption charges.

There are a few ways Hochul, and the state Legislature, can start to make some progress on repairing trust:

— Right now, members of the public who sue over FOIL or Open Meetings law violations can have a hard time recouping attorney fees if they win their case. The state should pass bill A5357A/S5801A, which would reform the state’s attorney fee statute for litigation involving FOIL and Open Meetings law.

— The state should also pass bill A7933, which would establish an independent hearing officer system for complaints about open government law violations. The New York State Coalition for Open Government likens this system to one created back in 1982, which allows property owners seeking to dispute their property assessments to complete an application, pay a fee and have a hearing officer assigned to the case to make a decision on the complaint rather than having to hire an attorney and file a lawsuit in Supreme Court.

Hochul was right to say in her budget presentation on Tuesday that focus on the state’s housing crisis must remain at the forefront, but Hochul’s promise of greater government transparency is one she must keep.