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Financial transparency sweeps nation

States shed new light on records

By David M. Dickson (Contact) | Monday, August 11, 2008

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When Texas Gov. Rick Perry began posting all of his office expenses on the Internet two years ago, he kicked off the financial transparency trend that many state and local governments now are joining.

In 2006, the items listed by Mr. Perry, a Republican, ranged from how much he paid his secretary to how much he spent for lunch.

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs quickly expanded the program to cover more than a dozen state agencies, and state Rep. Mark Strama, a Democrat, then led a bipartisan drive to codify Mrs. Combs' efforts into a statewide law.

Since then, 11 other states - Kansas, Oklahoma, Hawaii, Minnesota, Washington, Utah, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Maryland and Arizona - have passed financial transparency laws, placing records of government expenditures within the reach of the curious on the Internet.

"I've always been amazed at the ability of technology to make very difficult processes so much easier," said Mr. Strama, whose business background included devising an online procedure that registered 700,000 new Texas voters "without breaking a sweat."

"Government budgets are too large for any individual to absorb," Mr. Strama said, "but large networks of people working independently online can now do this."

Through the Internet, he said, "diffuse populations are capable of doing amazing things." He cited the blogosphere's role in publicizing the holds that Sens. Ted Stevens, Alaska Republican, and Robert C. Byrd, West Virginia Democrat, placed on 2006 legislation, which radically increased the financial transparency of the federal government.

Sponsored by Sens. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, and Barack Obama, Illinois Democrat, the bill required full disclosure of all entities or organizations receiving federal funds. Once their holds were identified publicly, Mr. Stevens and Mr. Byrd relented, allowing the Coburn-Obama transparency bill to sail through the Senate.

Last year, Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate, and Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, formed their own alliance to urge governors to duplicate at the state level what Mr. Coburn and Mr. Obama achieved at the federal level.

"We urge you to work expeditiously to make the full text of all your written state expenditures and contracts, ranging from procurement of goods and services to grants, leaseholds and labor contracts, available to the public on the Internet in a clear and searchable manner," Mr. Nader and Mr. Norquist wrote to the governors in July 2007.