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January 27, 2010 by
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Some argue for more “Sunshine” in government as if transparency is a positive onto itself. It is not. Transparency matters because it guarantees access to information that empowers every citizen to hold government officials accountable for the conduct of the publics’ business and the spending of taxpayers’ money. Official accountability to the citizen is the great positive; the corner stone of self government and liberty.
Sunshine matters because without transparency there can be no accountability. And, without accountability, there is no self government. Without accountability, government of the people is government over the people.
The opportunities for government transparency have never been greater. The Internet allows direct, low cost access to virtually unlimited quantities of documents and data, while an array of telecommunications devices can instantly transmit information to millions of citizens simultaneously. But for all the power of these technologies, government cannot be fully transparent—and thus accountable—unless disclosure is de rigueur.
Freedom of Information Act laws do facilitate a degree of citizen scrutiny. But government agencies easily exploit a variety of FOIA loopholes, and even the savviest citizens can be stymied by the convoluted requirements. Thus, government at every level must be forced to provide citizens ready access to all budgets, contracts, audits, permits, meeting minutes and the like. It is entirely reasonable to expect that such “affirmative disclosure” should be no less stringent than the multifarious disclosure demands government imposes on taxpayers.
Many states, counties, cities and school districts come up short in providing an appropriate level of transparency. For example, California’s budget site does not disclose line item expenditures, grants, state contracts, or employee compensation data. Massachusetts has no online database of state spending. New York posts its financial reports online, but in a PDF format that is not searchable.
A useful method of evaluating government Web sites—a 10-point “Transparency Checklist” —has been developed by Sunshine Review, a wiki platform for measuring government Web content against what should be available. As noted on the Sunshine Review Web site (www.SunshineReview.org), “We shouldn’t have to ask the government for permission to be an informed citizen.”
Michael Barnhart, Sunshine Review
mbarnhart@sunshinereview.org
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July 9, 2009 by
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A couple of few interesting updates…
* Our friends at posted a strong admonishment to and state on the this morning. Burns recently discharged Senator Thayer Verschoor (R-Gilbert) and Senate Majority Whip Pamela Gorman (R-Anthem) from their leadership positions after the senators voted against the Governor’s ill-advised legislation to increase AZ’s sales tax. Americans for Tax Reform set up an citizens can visit to speak out against the tax hike.
* Bob Weeks over at points out that Sedgwick County, Kansas has placed its . Inquiring minds can sort data by function, category, fund, or vendor.
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* The Ocean State Policy Research Institute is tracking RI stimulus spending through their newest website, .
* Duval County from , which was the given in the state of , and the only county that had complete information about lobbyists on its Web site. Only one Florida county, , should be embarrassed by not having a web presence.
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July 6, 2009 by
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In an effort to educate those wishing to take a closer look at local government, Dr. Fusco, former superintendent in Branford, put together a (CAC).
Dr. Fusco’s work in combination with the reinforces the need to form citizen committees in order to tackle larger problems within local and state government. Too often investigative citizens tackle issues as single units but there are huge benefits of combining efforts. Simply put, more ground can be covered than any one individual is able to accomplish, especially when dealing with the complexities of local governments or school boards.
“A Citizens Audit Committee can do what school boards and town officials are either unwilling to do for political reasons or unable to do because of a lack of skill, information, and time.”
An additional benefit of CACs is that they will provide, “independent and objective oversight to budgeting and spending practices by assessing whether there is efficiency or effectiveness.”
This document was also written in order to help explain confusing terminology, which often is where concerned taxpayers end up hitting a roadblock. Even motivated individuals can get tripped up with the jargon used in many of the government forms.
The report also provides strategies of where to begin to look for discrepancies and then ultimately what citizens should do once they have found meaningful data. Reaching those who can utilize the findings becomes the next important step so that problems can be amended and preventative measures can be put in place for the future.
Through the efforts of the more citizens will have the tools to effectively expose problems that exist in public offices and combat corruption by alerting those who pay for it- the everyday taxpayer.
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June 16, 2009 by
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Corporate bailouts have been in the news as of late, but how about personal bailouts? Well, Charles Flowers, the superintendent of the was found recently to be skimming the district’s cash account when his paychecks just were not enough. Oh yeah, and this scheme also included his two sisters and nephew.
Phil Kadner of the reported that
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When the state auditor general became involved it was found and reported that, “the payroll register does not show any repayments between this date [April 4, 2008] and June 30, 2008.” This money, paid out illegally, and unbeknownst to the taxpayers, was used for various personal purchases whose receipts have conveniently been hard to locate. When asked about the allegations of theft, Dr. Flowers claimed that the bills were “repaid from his personal bank account.” Apparently the money was taken and paid back, all without proper documentation that would come with having the receipts on hand. No harm right? It will be interesting to see what the Illinois State’s Attorney will think of that story.
When it is all said and done, I think it’s safe to say that the taxpayers of greater Suburban Cook County will be calling for greater transparency within the district’s expansive public budget.
Actions that Cook County taxpayers will likely call for might mirror the measures that just have been enacted in schools in Michigan. These two schools are the first in the state to post their checkbook registers online as part of a ‘Show Michigan the Money’ statewide transparency project by the .
Ultimately, something tells me that this will not be the last case of abuse we hear of within the public school systems in Illinois. This will especially be the case if the budgets become available to a wider range of taxpayers and watchdogs interested in where their money goes; both for planned projects and anything illegal in nature that might be going on.
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May 5, 2009 by
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Here are a few transparency updates from around the nation.
* ILLINOIS: The buy sildenafil started an to display “Strategy, help and stories about getting public information in Illinois”. Good move from the Trib, since Chicago’s Mayor Daley .
Another IL piece worth reading is the . It mentions that Mill Creek Special Service Area is “absolutely deficient” when graded on the standards set forth in the .
* MICHIGAN: The Clare Sentinel published an excellent letter to the editor titled, “.” The letter demonstrates that school transparency is much easier than most people think. It takes just minutes per day!
* OKLAHOMA: , a fiscal watchdog group, lamented the lack of county transparency in the Sooner State, and regarding school districts.
* TENNESSEE: Governor Phil Bredesen , , that increases transparency by listing vendor payments and employee travel reimbursements and salaries.
* FEDERAL: President Obama is . According to the Heritage Foundation, these regulations make union officials more accountable to union members and deter fraud and embezzlement.
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March 17, 2009 by
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When is a government website NOT a government website? Michael Quinn Sullivan from reports:
In difficult economic times, transparency is an easy answer to make sure taxpayers are getting enough bang for their buck. Groups like , , and are doing their part to remind government officials of that priority.
Related: Check out website.
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March 5, 2009 by
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Oklahoma Senator is a known crusader against wasteful, secret, and pork-barrel spending and earmarks. He did the nation a favor this week when he posted an section on his website.
Interesting facts about this legislation:
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According to CBO, the omnibus will cost $410 billion, $32 billion (8.4%) more than FY 2008 spending. The legislation is 1,128 pages long. Each page is equal to $363 million in spending.buy sildenafil
• $19 billion (4.9%) more than President Bush’s request
• $19 billion (4.9% more than the cost of extending the continuing resolution
• $32 billion (8.4%) more than last yearbuy sildenafil
Total omnibus earmarks: 8,570
Total cost: $7.7 billionThe three previously enacted FY 2009 spending bills included a total of 2,321 earmarks, costing $6.6 billion.
Total FY 2009 earmarks: 10,891
Total FY 2009 earmark spending: $14.3 billion
Good grief.
H/T: - compiled
Also… as a plug for our friends at , Senator Coburn is the keynote speaker at a . I hope you will join me in supporting American Majority’s mission of recruiting activists that believe in fiscal restraint. Sen. Coburn could use some back-up!
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March 5, 2009 by
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In an , states he is not accepting his entire cut of the stimulus package in order to keep competitive. Also, he does not philosophically agree with the stimulus package. He advocates for more tax cuts and “targeted temporary spending”.
Jindal emphasizes that the best way to grow the economy is through tax cuts.
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He questions how certain spending project in the bill will even stimulate the economy.
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Governor Jindal rejected stimulus dollars for unemployment insurance because it would result in raising taxes on businesses.
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February 4, 2009 by
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Today, Cook County Board member Tony Peraica for
John Tillman, President of the , accurately stated:
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Other things to throw up on the Cook County website are lobbying contracts and information on how to file a .