State Gov’t Spending Transparency

Posted on March 3rd, 2009

As a companion to our new annual session, Arkansas desperately needs a gateway for obtaining information and key documents about how the State of Arkansas spends tax dollars and other revenues to provide services to Arkansans. It would provide an online solution that brings better visibility, openness, and accessibility to state government financial activity for our taxpayers. This idea is part of a national trend for governments to develop websites that allow constituents to view financial information in searchable formats. Such websites are widely considered to improve transparency into the financial operations of government.

Here are some of the items that you should be able to do with an online fiscal accountability portal:

• » Find salaries and travel reimbursements paid to employees of the State and employees of local boards of education.
• » Find professional services expenditures made by state organizations.
• » Obtain key reports related to the State’s budget and finances.
• » Search for reports that evaluate how well various state programs are operating. These reports include performance audits, program evaluations, and special examinations.

Below is a list of states that I have found that currently have some form of comprehensive online portal for searching and evaluating government spending. Click on the state name to go to their website.

• Alaska: While a good amount of the information is there, this site is still seriously lacking in usability, content, and organization. There are some evident holes in the information that should be there. I expect more than this from Governor Palin, she should be doing this better.
• Georgia: This is perhaps the second best spending transparency website (tie with Washington) that I can find. In addition to a ton of information that is easy to find, there are also performance audits and program evaluations. Truly a superior site with valuable information that is accessible and understandable to the everyday citizen.
• Kansas: You all know how I like charts and graphs. Kansas has charts and graphs! If we had the Georgia system with charts and graphs, I’d be in heaven (see Washington below). Charts and graphs. So what? I like typing it: Charts and graphs! Charts and graphs!
• Kentucky: This one is brand new, but looks promising. The Democrat Gov. Steve Beshear gets credit for creating this site by executive order.
• Louisiana: Although better than Alaska, this site still needs some real work to measure up to Kansas and Georgia. The site says that it is still under development. I hope so, I expect better from Governor Jindal.
• Maryland: Hey, it’s better than nothing.
• Missouri: There is alot of information there, but damn, it is hard to navigate. Nonetheless, kudos to Governor Nixon for keeping it going. Should be better developed since it has been in the works since July 2007. Needs more charts and graphs.
• Nevada: Somewhat limited in information, but this site is brand new. It “went live” in January 2009
• Oklahoma: This is a pretty darn good site. There seems to be a legitimate trade-off between the level of detail and the ease of use by the common citizen. This one ranks right up there with Georgia and Kansas.
• South Carolina: Better than Maryland and more information than Lousiana, but it looks and is arranged like they would really prefer it didn’t exist.
• South Dakota: Great content and one of the better ones for navigation. Excellent web address: http://open.sd.gov – short, simple, and easy to remember. The portal is barebones and no frills to the point of making me nostalgic in the same way that black monochrome monitors with green text does. Nostalgia be damned! I want charts and graphs, or at the very least give me one pretty color picture. Okay?
• Texas: Not bad, but a state with the size and population of Texas should do much better.
• Washington: Wow. See, now that’s taking care of BUSINESS. Easy to navigate. Excellent site name – “fiscal.wa.gov”. Lots of information with drill down data access. Charts and graphs everywhere! Bottom level on the drill down has “Key Indicators of Success, Proven or Promising Strategies, Results-Based Prioritization of Activities, and Indicators & Measures“. Another hat tip to a Democrat: State Senator Eric Oemig created this by legislation.

Tags: government transparency
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One Response to “State Gov’t Spending Transparency”

1. Stuff from Around Arkansas, March 3 | The Arkansas Project Says:
   March 3rd, 2009 at 10:16 am

   [...] State: Good post from blogging GOP Rep. Mark Martin looking at government spending and transparency. Why doesn’t Arkansas have a good online database to make state spending open and accessible, [...]