Colorado Spending Transparency

Another aspect of transparency allows the public enough time to review and comment on legislation.  Both Governor Bill Ritter and President Barack Obama show the same lack of respect for those paying the bills.  We don’t even get to review the bills that affect our lives and wallets.

Candidate Obama promised that the public would be given five days to review and comment on any legislation before he signed it into law.  Cato has documented how President Obama repeatedly has broken the hearts of transparency advocates. 

That same habit of rushing a bill through the legislature is happening here in Colorado.  Whether you agree with SB10-36, the “teacher tracking bill,” or not, the public should be given more than 48 hoursto read, review and comment on legislation before it is signed by the Governor Ritter or any other governor for that matter. 

This is especially true since SB 36 was passed with the “Safety Clause,” which says: “The general assembly hereby finds, determines, and declares that this act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety.”  In other words, the legislature has decided the public cannot challenge the bill.  This is a classic example of safety clause abuse so common in the Colorado General Assembly but taken to a new level since the public wasn’t given time to review and comment.

Some Colorado school districts aren’t waiting for the General Assembly to mandate financial transparency.  Greeley Evans School District Six in Northern Colorado has placed its check reigstry online.

But most impressive is what Colorado’s largest school district Jeffco Public Schools has provided for taxpayers on its financial transparency Web page.  Interested taxpayers set the date parameters, and then search Jeffco expenditures by vendor, account number, fund or department number.  The search results can be easily downloaded into an individual xcel file.  For instance, in just a matter of minutes COST determined that Jeffco spent $313,199.46 on meals/refreshments from July 1 to December 31, 2009.   It’s not up to COST to make a judgement on those expenditures.  That is the responsibility of Jeffco taxpayers.

We will however make a judgement on Jeffco’s transparency Web site, and we have yet to find a better one in the country.  COST believes Jeffco is on the cutting edge of transparency.  We encourage other school districts to take Jeffco’s lead and provide the same type of detailed financial transparency. 

The state of Colorado should take lessons as well.  Governor Bill Ritter’s transparency Web site TOP is an embarrassment.

State Representative and Joint Budget Committee member Kent Lambert provides a tremendous amount of information about the state budget and spending on his Web site. 

COST enjoyed digging through a database on state government vehicles.  According to the database, taxpayers have purchased 5534 vehicles over the course of many years.  What’s interesting is that in the middle of the “worst recession since the Great Depression” Parole purchased over sixty 2009 hybrid sedans at a cost of more than $1million.  COST wondered why.  According to sources, apparently the new vehicles were for employees to ”ride share” to and from work.  

COST will let taxpayers decide if that was a good use of their hard-earned money.

Our transparency Czarina Amy Oliver Cooke is a mom so we hear lots of parenting stories.  Right now, President Barack Obama looks like the over promising parent who constantly under delivers.  While American voters are like the kids who aren’t buying the falsehoods and simply roll their eyes every time Barack Obama utters the word “transparency.”

According to Breitbart TV, Obama has made no fewer than eight promises for transparency in health care reform negotiations.  Those promises ring hollow.  Politico reports:

President Barack Obama and congressional Democratic leaders agreed Tuesday to forgo a formal conference committee for reconciling the Senate and House health care bills, according to three Democratic congressional aides.

The decision means that the White House, Senate Majority Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will attempt to reach an agreement through private negotiations with key lawmakers.

No C-SPAN. No TV cameras. No internet streaming. No opposition party. Once again…No transparency.

Governor Bill Ritter spent more than $200,000 on TV, photographs and videos of himself, an Associated Press investigation revealed.   According to AP, “taxpayers paid that amount for photos of the Democratic governor signing bills and attending a lavish production for the state film commission.”

Also revealed in the story, the Bawmann Group, which COST reported on a few months ago, received a federal grant awarded through the state for $669,000 “to promote fatherhood last year.”

If Colorado employed priority-based budgeting, COST wonders where Governor Ritter’s taxpayer-funded photo shoots would fall on the list of priorities.  Before or after all the money he spends on his own lobbyists?