My crusade: No taxation without information!
File this under…another expression I wish I had thought of but didn’t. According to the Sunshine Review, “No taxation without information” actually is a campaign coming soon from the Sam Adams Alliance, which also is the creator of Ballotpedia. I’m going to make this motto my own. Basically it means, government should be open and transparent, and that taxpayers have a right to know where their money is going. What a crazy idea!
Going forward, it will be my mission to get my city — Greeley; my school district — Greeley Evans District Six, which has a “Comprehensive Accountability System” that doesn’t include budget transparency; my county — Weld County; and my state — Colorado to put their check registries on-line, in a searchable database. I want to know where all the money goes and not just from some annual report that breaks down a budget by category. Taxpayers and I have a right to know where and how every single dime of our money is being spent. Also, an on-line registry would be helpful for citizens to provide feedback on whether or not they think goverment is using money appropriately.
This is not secret information. In fact, check registries and copies of checks are a matter of public record, but why should a taxpayer have to go to the herculanean task of submitting a Colorado Open Record Act (CORA) request, which may or may not be honored, and then be subjected to fees of anywhere from a few to a few thousand dollars just to get information on how his or her tax dollars are being spent?
Colorado Treasurer Cary Kennedy ran on a platform of budget transparency. Kennedy has yet to make good on her promise. Although, she does provide Colorado taxpayers with a very pretty State Taxpayers Accountability Report (STAR) complete with graphs, charts, lots of color and fabulous pictures of Colorado. If you want more information, Treaurer Kennedy suggests the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, which despite its 195 pages, doesn’t tell me who got paid and how much.
In 2007, Northern Colorado State Representative Don Marostica (R-Loveland) introduced HB 1164 Taxpayer Transparency Act that would have created a searchable website for state contracts and grants and the posting of moneys that exceeded $300 expended within five days of the treasurer receiving the information. It was killed in committee along a party line vote.
The million dollar plus price tag is cited as one of the reasons for killing the legislation, but what could be more important to taxpayers than accountability from their government especially considering it’s taxpayers’ money? Examples from other states prove that cost issues ring hollow. In an article appropriately titled “Texas-Sized Transparency” by Talmadge Heflin director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation:
Texas Comptroller Susan Combs has converted the state 's massive budget into a user-friendly package with the introduction of "Where the Money Goes. " The site is a comprehensive look at state spending over the last several fiscal years. As one of the first of its kind in the country, the website has received enormous attention and praise "“ from both critics and admirers.
Efforts to replicate the website in other states have met with protests regarding the potential cost of such a program. Such critics fail to acknowledge that "Where the Money Goes " actually saved the state millions of dollars in just its first year. The application only cost the state $310,000 to develop, but by consolidating various state contracts in Texas government, Combs has already saved $2.3 million in her agency alone.
Also in Texas, over 150 of the school districts post their check registries on-line. Seems to me that Colorado school districts should do the same.
According to Americans for Tax Reform, other states that have passed some sort of transparency legislation either via their state legislatures or executive order include Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, Washington, Utah, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Florida, South Carolina, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. This list proves that transparency is not a partisan issue but rather an issue of good government versus unaccountable government.
Fortunately for Colorado taxpayers, we have an ally that buys ink by the barrel. The Colorado Press Association has taken up the cause of transparency and accountability. Under a project called Open Government 2008, a number of editors from Colorado’s major daily papers have penned editorials regarding the importance of open, transparent and accountable government at all levels.
Bottom line is: NO TAXATION WITHOUT INFORMATION! Let’s say it together and lobby our governments to provide us with all necessary information to be the most informed voters we possibly can.