Creating a Free, Searchable Website of State Spending
Bringing Sunshine to Public Spending
2007-25
At some point most citizens wonder, “Just how, when and where does government spend our tax dollars? What do our elected representatives want to accomplish when they spend public money, and what results are actually achieved?”
Considering Washington lawmakers will spend about $71 billion over the next two years, these are basic questions to which any taxpayer should be able to get answers quickly and conveniently. This is especially true since modern technology makes accessing large amounts of information easier than ever. Unfortunately, the opportunity to learn these answers is currently limited and difficult to achieve.
The current lack of spending transparency is not the result of some deep Machiavellian conspiracy to hide budget information from the public. Instead it is simply a failure of elected officials to keep up with the times by providing taxpayers with a free, easy-to-use website where people can find these details.
A solution to this lack of budget transparency problem is available. Last year the federal government enacted a law that provides a roadmap for states on how to allow citizens to find out about government spending.
Creating a Searchable Budget Website
Recently, President Bush recognized the federal government’s need to be more accountable to Americans for the nearly $1 trillion Congress appropriates each year in discretionary spending. Last year he signed the bipartisan Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act. The Act was co-sponsored by senators Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Barack Obama (D-IL) and passed Congress unanimously.
The new law creates a free, easy-to-use, searchable, Google-type web site that allows citizens to track the recipients of all federal funds. The privacy of individuals is protected. For example, one cannot look up how much Social Security someone receives monthly.
According to the president, this budget database will enable citizens “to call up the name and location of entities receiving federal funds and will provide them with the purpose of the funding, the amount of the money provided, the agency providing the funding and other relevant information.”
Transparency Reforms in Other States
Recently the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a nonpartisan association of state legislators, adopted model legislation to implement state versions of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act. ALEC also adopted a model bill to require that the public have at least 72 hours to review tax and spending bills before they are voted on.
Many states are already moving forward with this type of reform. The following states have created some form of searchable budget websites for citizens:
Similar proposals have been introduced as bills in the legislatures of other states, including Washington .
Washington representatives Mark Miloscia (D-30th District) and Rep. Dan Kristiansen (R-39th District) introduced HB 2342 last session, “to make the state budget information available to the public.” The bill would create a free, searchable website for use by the public and providing details about state spending and agency performance.
Last session legislators also introduced HB 1834, to create a budget “time out” before votes could occur on appropriations bill.
Current State of Public Budget Information
So what budget tools are currently available for state taxpayers?
If you have the time and patience to read through hundreds of pages of budget bills and dig through numerous state websites and publications, you might actually find the spending and agency performance information you are looking for. But even if you think you have found the right page in the right report, reading and understanding what it says is an entirely different matter. For example, here is a typical page from the state’s current 2007-2009 budget:
If the state had a searchable budget website, rather than having to dig through thousands of pages of budget documents, each item in the table above could be linked to a plain-English explanation of what it means and further broken down by how the money is spent all the way to the program level. Performance information for the spending would also be included. That way, any citizen with internet access could go to a single source for the public spending information he is looking for.
Such websites are not merely theoretical. Texas and Missouri , as described below, already have such sites. Even in Washington one agency, the Department of General Administration, has created a searchable website showing its public contracts. Here is what it looks like:
General Administration’s contract website allows users to search for state contracts by keyword, contract number, vendor and expired contracts.
Budget Transparency Reforms of Note
The following are examples of the searchable budget websites and required spending information for the federal government, Texas and Missouri .
Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act
Cost: $15 million (2007-2011)
“The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA) of 2006 asks the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to lead the development, by January 2008, of a single searchable website, accessible by the public for free that includes for each Federal award:
the name of the entity receiving the award;
the amount of the award;
information on the award including transaction type, funding agency, etc;
the location of the entity receiving the award;
a unique identifier of the entity receiving the award.
What is the purpose of the new legislation? To provide the public with information about how their tax dollars are spent. Citizens have a right and need to understand where tax dollars are spent. Collecting data about the various types of contracts, grants and loans in our government will provide a broader picture of and much needed transparency to the Federal spending processes. The ability to look at contracts, grants, loans, and other types of spending across many agencies, in greater detail, is a key ingredient to building public trust in government and credibility in the professionals who use these agreements.”
Texas Searchable State Spending Database
Cost: “No fiscal implication to the state is anticipated.”
“By October 1, 2007, the comptroller of public accounts (comptroller) is required to establish and post on the Internet a database of state expenditures, including contracts and grants, that is electronically searchable by the public. The database is to include the amount, date, payor, and payee of expenditures; and a listing of state expenditures by object of expense with links to the warrant or check register level and, to the extent maintained by state agency accounting systems in a reportable format, class and item levels. The comptroller, to the extent possible, is to present information in the database established under this section in a manner that is searchable and intuitive to users. The comptroller is to enhance and organize the presentation of the information through the use of graphical representations, such as pie charts, as the comptroller considers appropriate. The database is required at the minimum to allow users to search and aggregate state funding by any element of the information; ascertain through a single search the total amount of state funding awarded to a person by a state agency; and download information yielded by a search of the database.”
Missouri Accountability Portal
Cost: Within existing resources
“As of July 11, 2007, the Commissioner of Administration shall establish the Missouri Accountability Portal as a free, internet-based tool allowing citizens to demand fiscal discipline and responsibility.
The Missouri Accountability Portal shall be an easy-to-search database of financial transactions related to the purchase of goods and services and the distribution of funds for state programs.
The Missouri Accountability Portal shall be updated each state business day and maintained as the primary source of information about the activity of Missouri ’s government.”
A free searchable budget transparency website will not cure all budget problems, but it would go a long way toward preventing waste and improving government performance.
Thomas Jefferson knew this long before the advent of the internet. In 1802 he wrote,
“We might hope to see the finances of the Union as clear and intelligible as a merchant’s books, so that every member of Congress and every man of any mind in the Union should be able to comprehend them, to investigate abuses, and consequently to control them.” [1]
Enacting a comprehensive searchable budget website and a budget “time out” period would also help to fulfill the expectation of the people expressed by the preamble to our state’s open government law:
“The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies that serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may maintain control over the instruments that they have created.” Revised Code of Washington 42.56.030
Based on the experiences of other states, implementing this reform would not be expensive, and cost should not dissuade elected officials from moving forward with it. Improving citizen access to information about public spending will not only help improve the budget decision making process of elected officials, but also help connect taxpayers with the spending decisions being made on their behalf. This reform is a win-win for everyone, except possibly for those who fear something embarrassing about public spending might be revealed.
[1] Letter to Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin, 1802
