Fighting for Transparency in Capitol Squares
A few days ago Tertium Quids, an independent advocacy organization focused on increasing individual opportunity and the free market while decreasing the size of government (See guys, got it right this time), introduced its 2009 legislative agenda.
At the core of the agenda is government transparency, which as anyone who has spent more than, say, five minutes on my blog knows is an issue that is very close to my heart. Senator Ken Cuccinelli is carrying SB936, which would require that the state put up a searchable database of all state expenditures, revenues and appropriations. The bill has the support of Bob McDonell, the GOP’s presumptive nominee for Governor, and Bill Bolling, the incumbent Lieutenant Governor. Such support indicates that transparency and limited government may in fact become a cornerstone of the Republican’s 2009 efforts.
TQ even has Senator Chap Petersen from deep blue Fairfax carrying the measure. You would think that a bill with bipartisan support would have plenty of support in and around Capitol Square….
However, Norm Leahy over at TQ’s blog is hearing whispers that some in state government are opposing the measure on the grounds that it would cost too much. However, Norm (one of my all time favorite bloggers) points out that experience proves otherwise:
* The federal government’s budget transparency site,www.usaspending.gov, cost about $600,000 to create and launch. It tracks contracts, grants, loans and other spending throughout the federal government. If the feds can manage to put their $2 trillion in spending into an online, searchable and highly-detailed format for just $600,000, surely Virginia could do the same for its $78 billion budget.
* Alaska, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina were able to create budget transparency sites and spent no new money to do so. Nebraska’s site will cost $39,000 and Mississippi’s will cost almost nothing because they will be using free transparency software available from the federal government.
* Texas spent $300,000 on their transparency site, but since its creation, they have used it to identify $2.3 million is savings by consolidating contracts and eliminating duplication between agencies.
Methinks that the opposition of bureaucrats may not be based so much on moral duty to the taxpayers as fear that their pet projects might just fall under public scrutiny.
