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.

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.

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.

Here are a few transparency updates from around the nation.

* ILLINOIS: The cialis viagra levitra 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.

When is a government website NOT a government website? Michael Quinn Sullivan from reports: