Colorado Spending Transparency

COST learned that the $800,000 plus Colorado paid to the Bawmann Group on behalf of the Departments of Health Care Financing and Human Services was for marketing and not crisis communication.  According to Brad Bawmann, head of the Bawmann Group, services provided, mostly to Human Services, included “promoting the Promoting Responsible Fatherhood Campaign (www.coloradodads.com), LEAP, Long Term Care and other social marketing campaigns. It included direct advertising costs for those campaign.”

It is not the role of COST to judge the merits of expenditures.  We leave that to the taxpayers of Colorado and legislators.   However, in order for taxpayers to make informed decisions, they must have information.  Aggregated information with no context is unacceptable.  Those spending taxpayer dollars need to provide context that includes a performance outcome.  Answer the question:  How do taxpayers benefit from each expenditure?  To bring it back to the Bawmann Group, what benefit did Colorado taxpayers receive for their $800,000 expenditure?

Next week COST will be reveiwing the actual invoices and contracts between the Bawmann Group and the state of Colorado.  We will report back to you the specifics and attempt to determine taxpayer benefit.

We appreciate Brad Bawmann contacting us and his quick response to questions raised in our most recent post.