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by Kevin Bargnes
Monday, March 3, 2008
A state lawmaker introduced legislation Friday that would create a user-friendly website focused on making state spending numbers easily accessible to the public.
Under the bill introduced by Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin, the Wisconsin Department of Administration would be required to categorize all state expenditures in excess of $100 on its website and the entity or person that received the money, starting July 1, 2009.
State agencies would be required to make the DOA aware of expenditures within 24 hours, Lazich wrote in a statement Friday.
“Several states have already adopted this philosophy called the ‘Google-government trend,’” she said. “A quick-and-easy Internet clearinghouse would throw a laser beam on government spending — the increased focus having great potential for significant savings.”
Lazich went on to say that such a website would be greatly valued by Wisconsin taxpayers. Wisconsin has one of the country’s highest tax rates, with the average tax paid in 2006 at $2,716.
University of Wisconsin professor of public affairs Andrew Reschovsky said while much of the information is already available on the Internet, the legislation is good in principle.
“I think the integral goal of providing more information to citizens about what our government does is a good thing,” he said. “Much of it could be made more easily accessible than it is now.”
However, he did express concerns over the amount of spending items that would be online when anything over $100 must be reported.
“When you think about that literally, that means probably hundreds of thousands of data items — every state employee, every check, every box of staples purchased,” Reschovsky said. “Maybe it should be contracts over $10,000 or $100,000, so the amount of information will be of a modest level that will actually inform citizens rather than flooding them with information.”
The cost of Lazich’s proposal was also a concern to Reschovsky.
“It strikes me as though this would be a tremendous burden on DOA and the different departments, so one has to balance the cost and benefits of this proposal,” he said. “Providing more information to citizens is a good thing, but we have to be very careful about how we craft this legislation.”
Lazich did not return calls seeking further comment.
Anonymous (March 3, 2008 @ 12:23am):
I wonder how many $99.99 items there would be if this law were to take effect?
- Germain E. Stemme
Anonymous (March 3, 2008 @ 4:31am):
A quick-and-easy Internet clearinghouse might be a "laser beam" on government spending, but incredibly timely and hi-LAR-ious insight such as that demonstrated by my Stemme brethren would undoubtedly be a like a SHARK with a frickin' "laser beam"! Look out, Spendocrats!
- Germain Q. Stemme
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