With tax day around the corner, now is when a lot of taxpayers may scratch their heads wondering just where their hard-earned tax dollars will end up. If pro-taxpayer lawmakers have their way, they may soon get some clarification.

Since passage of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, which provided for the creation of a searchable Web site detailing information on federal grants and contracts, efforts to bring the same level of transparency into government spending at the state level have been initiated across the country. The law was co-sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

Examiner readers already know the work of Del. Warren Miller, R-Howard, and Sen. Alex Mooney, R-Frederick, to put Maryland government expenditures online in a searchable format, including grants, loans and other financial assistance.

While this effort met with little enthusiasm among members of the just-adjourned General Assembly in Annapolis, legislators elsewhere are moving forward rapidly with similar bills to create Web sites detailing government spending in their states.

This story continues below
Advertisement

Efforts vary from state to state. While some states are modeling their bills closely after the federal legislation, others move beyond it to include requirements for the posting of even more spending data. Some are also mandating posting of state government contracts.

Coburn’s home state of Oklahoma was one of the first states to pick up the ball and run with it. Sen. Randy Brogdon’s (R-Owasso) “Taxpayer Transparency Act” passed the state Senate unanimously, and is expected to sail through the state house as well. Democratic Gov. Brad Henry embraced spending transparency in his State of the State address earlier this year, so Oklahomans should soon be able to track where their state tax dollars are going.

In Kansas, Rep. Kasha Kelley’s (R-Arkansas) spending transparency bill passed the state house in February. When the bill stalled the Senate, Sen. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, was able to attach the bill in its entirety to the Senate budget.

Republican Gov. Rick Perry of Texas made the spending transparency issue a major point in his budget reform proposal earlier this year. Since then, three separate bills addressing the issue have been introduced. Perry and Republican State Comptroller Susan Combs have already put their offices’ expenditures online. The comptroller’s site also includes data for eight state agencies.

Other states in which transparency legislation has been introduced are Minnesota, Washington, Connecticut, Illinois, New Mexico, Tennessee, Hawaii, Florida and Georgia. New York state Senate leaders are proposing a three-pronged government transparency plan that includes the Internet database. The North Dakota state house has passed an amendment requiring online disclosure of expenditures made with government purchase cards.

In Colorado and Kentucky, bills to create searchable Web sites for state government expenditures never made it out of committee, but taxpayers can look forward to renewed efforts by advocates in both states.

More states are likely to join the campaign, too, thanks to a new coalition called the ShowMetheSpending.org. The coalition was assembled by the National Taxpayers Union, Americans for Tax Reform, Council for Citizens Against Government Waste and Americans for Prosperity. The Web site is www.showmethespending.org.

The coalition is confident of success because most people agree with Texas’ Perry, who said: “If the taxpayers are picking up the bill, they ought to be able to look at every item on the receipt.”

Sandra Fabry is state government affairs manager at Americans for Tax Reform.