Open Books and Let the Sun Shine In
By Chuck Muth (01/14/08)
In these tough budgetary times, how much money are state taxpayers coughing up for museums? And would you be interested to know that the state Department of Tourism and Recreation spent $206,933.65 on "Travel" in 2007? How about the fact that the Secretary of State's office spent $65,609.83 for "Office Furniture & Equipment" in 2006, but almost five times that amount in 2007? Or that the state college paid $26,377.80 to Pepsi?
Did you know that R.L. Adams of the Ethics Commission is being paid $6,776.44 a month? Or that J.D. Baker is hauling down $4,812.50 a month over at the Department of Education? Or that K.R. Kendricks is raking in $5,365.50 a month on the state’s Human Rights Commission? Did you even know there WAS a Human Rights Commission?
Well, now Oklahomans can learn all of this and much, much more about what the state government is spending the taxpayers’ money on quickly and conveniently at a fully searchable public website.
The Sooner State has joined a growing number of government entities openly embracing budgetary transparency by putting its finances online. Its Open Books website ( www.openbooks.ok.gov ) is “loaded with information” which enables taxpayers to determine for themselves if their tax dollars are being spent wisely.
Granted, the website is a work in progress. Far more detailed information is needed and surely will be provided eventually. For example, “Miscellaneous Administrative Expenses” should be broken down into specific expenditures, to whom and for what purpose. But this transparency website is light years ahead of anything most state taxpayers currently have at their disposal.
Open Books is a searchable website which mirrors the budgetary database being created at the federal level thanks to bi-partisan legislation co-sponsored by Republican Sen. Tom Coburn and Democrat Sen. Barack Obama. It’s the latest in a growing movement to use this Internet thingy Al Gore invented to help taxpayers see for themselves if they’re getting all the government they’re paying for, and then some.
This is an idea whose time has come. With bureaucrats at every level of government from coast to coast squealing like stuck Arkansas razorbacks over budget cuts, taxpayers could use some cold, hard facts and figures to separate the apocalyptic hysteria from reality. All that’s needed is a little leadership and the political will to open the books and let the sun shine in.
At which point, every state should immediately establish a local version of Ronald Reagan’s federal “Grace Commission.” Commissioners and taxpayers alike, armed with truckloads of red pens, could then to go through the state budgets and begin lining out unnecessary expenses, low priorities, waste, fraud, abuse and duplication. Then and only then should any talk of any tax hikes of any kind on anyone be even remotely considered.
Copyright 2008 Chuck Muth. All rights reserved.
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