Colorado Spending Transparency

COST has learned the State Representative BJ Nikkel (R-HD49) will introduce Colorado state spending transparency legislation as one of her four bills for the 2009 legislative session.  Her legislation will focus on expenditures and revenues and does not include contracts. 

Rep. Nikkel replaced Kevin Lundberg when he moved to the Senate following Steve Johnson’s election to the Larimer County Board of Commissioners.  That’s why Nikkel’s legislation is just now being released. 

Representative Don Marostica was going to reintroduce the transparency legislation this year but he decided not to do so when Governor Ritter pledged to make the state’s finances more transparent in his State of the State Speech.  Ritter promised back on January 8, “and we’re making government more and more transparent by putting more services online – and soon, working with Treasurer Kennedy’s office and Representative Marostica, we’ll have the state’s checkbook online.” 

The assumption was that the Governor’s office would issue an executive order but so far nothing has materialized.  Furthermore, Rep. Nikkel spoke with the Governor’s office who confirmed that one wouldn’t be for another two months.  In other words, when the legslative session is nearly over.

Also, according to Face the State, right after Ritter’s speech Treasurer Cary Kennedy ”hesitant to commit to a timeline” for transparency while Representative Marostica said it could take up to three years. 

It just seemed a little odd to us that the federal government could put expenditures, revenues and contracts online in about a year and various states in a matter of months but in Colorado it would take three years?! Especially since COST knows that expenditure and revenue information already is accessible via the Governor’s Office of Information Technology and could be made available to the public in just a matter of weeks.

Furthermore, COST is happy to admit that we were wrong about transparency being a partisan issue in Colorado!  Nikkel told us that several Democrat legislators signed on as sponsors of her legislation.  Transparency isn’t a partisan issue.  It’s a good governance issue. 

Nikkel’s justification for transparency legislation is that an executive order is subject to the whim of whomever is governor.  COST agrees.  While Governor Ritter appears friendly to towards tranparency, who knows what the future holds.