Colorado Spending Transparency

Remember Amendment 54 Clean Government Colorado?  It was the 2008 successful ballot initiative that forbids holders of no-bid government contracts of $100,000 or more from making political contributions for two years.  Ever since its passage, special interest groups with no-bid contract that donate millions of dollars to issue and candidate campaigns have been whining about a violation of their free speech. 

Just recently Director of the Colorado Transparency Project Amy Oliver attended a meeting of select Colorado non-profits where they discussed how to challenge Amendment 54 in court.  Plaintiffs are hoping for a preliminary injunction that would prevent its implementation.

However, they are not challenging the transparency requirement, which mandates government contractors (including a number of Colorado non-profits) submit an electronic summary of their contract for anyone to review on the Internet. The State Department of Personnel is responsible for maintaining the searchable, web-based database containing all sole-source government contracts.

Prepare to be underwhelmed.  Despite a December 31, 2008 compliance date, the Colorado Department of Personnel and Adminstration contract summary database, while available, is far from complete.  It appears that Colorado non-profits and others have been lax in getting their information about their no-bid contracts to the state.  

Good news is that those at the meeting were encouraged to comply with this transparency requirement.  COST will check the database in a few days to see if the advice was taken seriously.