Amy Oliver and Stephanie Kubala of the Colorado Independence Institute wrote a great op-ed discussing the need for transparency in Colorado’s government spending, especially as state taxes and fees have soared there in the last decade, nearly doubling the state budget since 2000.

And still, tax-eaters demand more. Oliver and Kubala cite three 2008 ballot measures that could raise taxes- Amendment 51, Amendment 58, and House Speaker Andrew Romanoff’s SAFE initiative.

Taxpayers should demand a complete accounting of every penny, and if officials are unable to do so, then maybe budgets are too big already.

Thanks to the Sam Adams Alliance, Colorado taxpayers have a new motto: No taxation without information!

Providing information is easy. Simply put government check registries online in a searchable database that includes contracts, grants and expenditures.

More than 20 states, including Kansas, Minnesota, Florida and New York already do this in some fashion.

According to the article, Colorado does have some leadership in the transparency movement, praising the Fort Collins city council, State Representative Don Marostica, the Colorado Press Association for their advocacy of opening the books.

Oliver and Kubala’s advice:

When some elected official or special interest group want to increase your taxes, you have a response: No taxation without information!

Posted by: Jayme Siemer | Category: No Taxation Without Information | 1 comment »

“We want to show Maine taxpayers — down to the agency, person and penny — where their dollars go. How can you get the most bang for the taxpayer’s buck?” Tarren Bragdon of the Maine Heritage Policy Center explained to the Bangor Daily News as the reason for launching a new website, MaineOpenGov.org.

The state of Maine paid more money in overtime than it did in salary in 2007 to a nurse at the Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center in Bangor.

A civil engineer with the Maine Department of Transportation racked up $16,000 in mileage reimbursements.

And the state of Maine spent $80,980 on bottled water.

If you’ve ever wondered where your tax dollars are going, the brand new MaineOpenGov.org Web site is for you. The site offers searchable databases of public information, including the payrolls of state employees, University of Maine System employees and money spent on goods, services and entertainment.

I had the opportunity to sit through a sneak peek presentation of this site and its sister site, See Through New York, a few weeks ago at a conference in Phoenix, and am thrilled that I now get a chance to toy with the numbers myself.

Congratulations to the Maine Heritage Policy Center for a great tool in the battle against government waste.

Posted by: Jayme Siemer | Category: No Taxation Without Information | Comments »

The Rhode Island Statewide Coalition (RISC) has released The Money Trail, a transparency website aimed at giving Rhode Islanders more information on how their government spends taxpayer dollars at multiple levels, as well as providing a platform for educated action. According to their website, The Money Trail works to track government budgets, actual expenditures, payroll, contracts, comprehensive plans, tax delinquencies, and foreclosures at the state, municipal and school district levels. You will also find report cards on government compliance with this transparency initiative, as well as the fiscal health of each government entity.

Seems like a giant step forward for a tiny state.

Posted by: Jayme Siemer | Category: No Taxation Without Information | Comments »

I apologize for the sporadic posting lately- I took a brief vacation, and spent some time in Las Vegas to attend the Conservative Leadership Conference, which included a lot of transparency discussion of tactics and tools.

CLC panelists took advantage of their platform to promote their transparency resources. I have listed a few of those below:

Transparent Nevada
Americans for Tax Reform
Missouri Accountability Portal
Ballotpedia
Sunshine Review

Other highlights from CLC were presentations by the Leadership Institute, John Fund, Congressman Shadegg, Thomas Keene, and an amazing performance by The Cactus Cuties.

Congratulations to Michael Brogkorb from Minnesota Democrats Exposed, winner of the Conservative Blogger of the Year award for his work to provide transparency regarding Al Franken’s tax documents.

Thank you to Chuck Muth of Citizen Outreach for hosting the conference. Can’t wait to do it all again next year!

Posted by: Jayme Siemer | Category: sunshine | 2 comments »

Sometimes when an idea is good once, it’s better twice- which is the case with Nevada’s new transparency websites.

The Nevada Policy Research Institute launched TransparentNevada.com this week, which includes searchable county and state financial data such as purchasing contracts, budgets, government employee salaries, lobbying expenses. The site also includes some departmental expenditures (education, transportation, and Health and Human Services), and a blog.

Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons hopped on the transparency bandwagon, forcing transparency by executive order last March. Nevada Open Government should be up and running soon, and will include searchable budgets, expenditures, contracts, and grants. If you go to the site now, you are greeted with links to miscellaneous financial data and reports.

These two websites will hopefully mean double trouble for the state’s tax-eaters and rent-seekers.

Posted by: Jayme Siemer | Category: No Taxation Without Information, Transparency Campaigns, Transparency Legislation | Comments »

Great transparency article from Paul Jacob on Sept 12th. (reprinted with permission)

You can see this article as well as Paul’s other columns at ThisIsCommonSense.com:

© Is for California

You might think that there’s nothing a government won’t try. You’d be right. But I was near stupefied to learn that the state of California copyrights its laws. And it’s not alone.

The state tries to control — through copyright — how you can access its laws, where and how you store them, etc. The state makes available its building codes, plumbing standards and criminal laws online, but requires you to ask for permission to download them!

The state’s out to make money. It charges $1,556 for a digital version, more for a print-out, and makes nearly a million dollars a year selling what is legally ours.

Yes, what’s ours. We are a nation of laws, not of men, and we have the right to own and reprint our laws as much as we want. The purpose of copyright is to ensure private parties can maintain some control over their intellectual property. But the laws themselves are, in point of elementary political theory, the intellectual property of all. Not of state bureaus.

Thankfully, heroic Internet technician and mover and shaker Carl Malamud believes in government transparency. And he, unlike Al Gore, really worked to help build the Internet.

On Labor Day Mr. Malamud published the whole California code online. Available for free.

Obviously, Malamud is spoiling for a fight. Good. He should win it. He has, after all, the law (if not the state) on his side.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Posted by: Jayme Siemer | Category: Transparency Activist, sunshine | Comments »

Nothing is more disappointing than when a public official believes they are above the law and abuses the public trust. That is exactly what happened with Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. His decision to lie under oath and to continue to deny it has cost the taxpayers of Detroit thousands of dollars and brought shame upon every elected official in Michigan. I hope the stiff penalties that Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is facing will serve as a warning to other elected officials that it is better to tell the truth than lie to the American people.

If you would like more information about this item I have posted an article about the subject.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who will lose his job because he lied while under oath at a police whistle-blower trial, has just pledged to tell the truth as he prepares to admit his guilt as part of a plea deal he just struck with the Wayne County Prosecutor.
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The deal calls for Kilpatrick to plead guilty to two felony counts of obstruction of justice by committing perjury, agreeing to serve four months in jail, pay up to $1 million in restitution, and serve five years’ probation. He also agreed not to run for office during that five-year span.

The mayor will turn over his state pension to the City of Detroit, which paid $8.4 million to settle two whistle-blower lawsuits three former cops filed against the city. The mayor was charged with eight felony counts ranging from conspiracy to perjury to misconduct in office to obstruction of justice after the Free Press revealed that the mayor lied on the witness stand during a police whistle-blower trial and gave misleading testimony about whether he intended to fire a deputy police chief investigating allegations of wrongdoing by members of his inner circle.

In a rushed monotone, Kilpatrick told the court: “I lied under oath in the case of Gary Brown and Harold Nelthrope versus the city of Detroit … I did so with the intent to mislead the court and jury, to impede and obstruct the disposition of justice.”

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Posted by: Molly Pitcher | Category: Corruption | Comments »

The Advocate lauded the work of Sunshine Review on examining Louisiana parish websites.

After surveying parish government Web sites in Louisiana’s 64 parishes, the Sunshine Review discovered the following:

* Thirty-three parish Web sites inform residents about who the elected officials of the parish are; 25 parish Web sites do not. Six such Web sites give partial information.
* Only 15 parish Web sites post the parish budget.
* Only four parish Web sites tell residents how to file a public records request through Louisiana’s Public Records Law.
* Thirty parish Web sites inform residents about public meetings. Thirty-three do not, and one gives partial information.
* Only nine parish Web sites include information on building permits and zoning.
* Only two parish Web sites provide information on parish contracts.

“Technology can be used to make government more transparent than ever,” said John Tsarpalis (sic), vice president of the alliance.

We agree, and we hope more parish governments do a better job of providing information on the Internet for the people they’re supposed to serve.

Post-Gustav, please go ahead and continue to do the work needed to open up government to LA taxpayers.

Posted by: Jayme Siemer | Category: No Taxation Without Information | Comments »

Bob Weeks, a free market activist in Sedgwick County, KS, is fighting the development of a TIF district that will benefit school board member and real estate developer Reverend Kevass Harding. Weeks reports that a conflict of interest exists for Harding, who is a member of the school board that is required to agree to the TIF, along with the county commission. Actually, the school board and county commission do not need to approve anything, but rather just not veto the proposal within 30 days.

From Weeks’ blog, Voice for Liberty in Witchita:

The best solution is for Reverend Harding to withdraw his request for the creation of the TIF district that benefits his development. Then there is no problem with conflicts of interest. This is also congruent with Reverend Harding’s votes to increase taxes while a member of the school board. His business would pay the same taxes he demands others pay.

Failing that, one way we could handle this situation is that the city could ask the school board to agree to pass a resolution agreeing to the TIF, even through they aren’t required to do this. Then Reverend Harding could publicly acknowledge his conflict of interest and step aside.

Although I don’t pretend to know the correct course of action in this particular situation, I do believe it’s these everyday little abuses of power and cloaked deals that make citizens disgusted with the political process. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (and probably again, and again, and again…) public servants need to be voluntarily forthcoming with all conflicts of interest, personal benefit, and offer detailed plans to taxpayers. This is the only way to restore faith in our system and in the public officials that make taxing and spending decisions on behalf of others.

Posted by: Jayme Siemer | Category: Transparency Activist | Comments »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 26, 2008

For more information:
Isabel Santa, (305) 431-8381

Tackling Parish Websites Can Enhance Transparency

A new website helps Louisianans know more about their parish websites

Chicago, IL – In an effort to ensure good government across the country, the Sam Adams Alliance launched Sunshine Review, a new, wiki-style website focused on evaluating the accessibility of government information and data on government websites. Recently, Sunshine Review users evaluated all 64 parish websites, finding a lack of transparency in over a third of them.

“Sunshine Review was created to make sure citizens nationwide have access to the information they need on government websites,” said John Tsarpalas, vice president of the Sam Adams Alliance.

According to a parish evaluation report on Sunshine Review, many Louisianans are in the dark on who is spending their tax dollars and where it is going. Currently, 25 parish websites don’t provide details about elected officials or their contact information, 33 don’t list meeting schedules or minutes, and 33 don’t post yearly budgets.

“Sunshine Review is performing a vital service to the citizens of Louisiana by identifying the shortcomings of local government websites,” said Kevin Kane, president of the Pelican Institute for Public Policy. “How can we become informed voters without access to such basic information? These wiki-style websites will play an important role in the movement to reform state and local government and Sunshine Review is leading the way.”

Launched in July 2008, Sunshine Review wants citizens everywhere to easily be able to locate basic facts about local governments on city, county and school district websites. The “My Government Website Project” on Sunshine Review has already initiated ratings of local government websites in 10 states. The website evaluation project is part of Sunshine Review’s No Taxation Without Information campaign.

“Technology should be used to make government more transparent than ever. We need to break this informational iron curtain between government and the people,” Tsarpalas said.

During the legislature’s ethics special session earlier in the year, Governor Jindal passed legislation that would increase transparency by creating a searchable database of state spending online.

About Sunshine Review
Sunshine Review is a Wikipedia-like website that enables people to find and share information about whether state and local governments are effective, easy to reach, open, honest and responsible with taxpayer money. Sunshine Review is a project of the Sam Adams Alliance, a national non-profit organization that strives to educate and inform citizens about political issues through new media tools.

For more information about Sunshine Review or to request an interview, please contact Isabel Santa at (305) 431-8381 or izzy@samadamsalliance.org

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Posted by: Jayme Siemer | Category: No Taxation Without Information | Comments »