Alliance for School Choice yearbook available

The Alliance for School Choice has their 2008-09 yearbook available. It contains comprehensive research and analysis on the entire school choice movement. Check out the yearbook for solid information on tax credits, scholarships, polling, trends, and program data.

Today, there are 18 school choice programs operating in 10 states and the District of Columbia, serving 171,000 children. As you will read in this book, these programs are supported by Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, making school choice a truly nonpartisan movement.

School choice is a pillar of the free market movement, and I’m glad the Alliance for School Choice is presenting information in a transparent way.

Daley’s partial transparency

Chicago’s Mayor Daley refused to make the spending project lists for the stimulus Bill transparent.    

“Yes, we do, we have our list, we’ve been talking to people. We did not put that out publicly because once you start putting it out publicly, you know, the newspapers, the media is going to be ripping it apart,” Daley said.

Apparently, Daley does not understand that the role of the media is to hold public officials accountable. 

On Feb. 11 Daley went to Washington and offered a partial list of the spending projects, which includes 200 schools, 150 miles of main streets, 200 miles of street lights and 75 miles of sewer and water mains.

It is pretty transparent from the 2009 budget that Daley is using red light cameras, parking tickets and parking taxes to ameliorate the budget crisis.  The city should also be completely, not partially transparent to tax payers on the spending list for the massive stimulus package. 

Rhode Island shows spending online

Almost one year ago, I was present for a meeting between the Ocean State Policy Research Institute and State Treasurer Frank T. Caprio. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss how Caprio could best fulfill his campaign promise of increasing transparency for Rhode Islanders. Today, the plans discussed in that meeting have come to fruition in the Treasury Online Checkbook, a tool that allows the public to view Treasury’s Accounts Payable expenditures.

“We believe firmly that transparency, and the accountability it inspires, are not just good for government, but good for Rhode Island,” said Caprio.

Exactly. I also was pleased to see that SR earned a spot in the site’s FAQ page for detailing states with spending online. Rock on!

Education Action Group video

The Education Action Group works to shed light on school-board union contract negotiations. It currently has two similar videos up at the EAG website. Go pick your favorite. I voted for this one:

Colorado transparency is Common Sense

Paul Jacob, President of Citizens in Charge, an organization working to preserve and expand initiative and referendum rights, addressed Colorado transparency in his Common Sense column today. I have copied it, with permission, below.

Opaque Transparency

Colorado’s state treasurer, Cary Kennedy, is on the hot seat. When running for office, he promised to make the state’s spending more transparent. He has not followed through.

In a different age, such dilatoriness might have been overlooked. Today, the very medium that makes it easy to report what is happening with taxpayers’ money, the Internet, also makes it easy to pressure delinquent officials.

There are websites. The one calling Kennedy to account is a blog called Colorado Spending Transparency. Or COST.

COST recalls that during his 2006 campaign for Colorado State Treasurer, Kennedy observed that when you buy groceries, the receipt shows what you bought. Kennedy, too, he said, would “show you where your money goes.”

Colorado does post its annual budget online. But the COST blog wants a detailed, searchable database, as fifteen other states have provided.

Representative Don Marostica, who also championed transparency in his 2006 campaign, introduced a bill to require such online itemizing. The bill never made it out of committee. Marostica had planned to re-introduce the bill until Governor Ritter stated in a recent speech that he would work with Treasurer Kennedy and others to put the state’s checkbook online.

COST says doing this will only reveal what the state paid, not necessarily what it paid FOR. COST wants the whole story. And will keep pressing until it gets it.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

You can check out information on the Colorado state budget on Sunshine Review.

Tony Peraica works transparency angle for Cook County

Today, Cook County Board member Tony Peraica called for spending transparency for Cook County, Illinois.

John Tillman, President of the Illinois Policy Institute, accurately stated:

Cook County government has been on a relentless mission to continually raise taxes. People have been abandoning Cook County for decades due to its high taxes and reputation for corruption and bloated payrolls. Transparency is a first step toward reform. It is the x-ray machine that will allow the citizens of Cook County to see every check written, for how much and to whom. More is needed, but this is an excellent first step.

Other things to throw up on the Cook County website are lobbying contracts and information on how to file a Freedom of Information Act request.

Buckeye Institute unveils employee salaries

Curious about what your state-employee neighbor makes, or just concerned about where your tax dollars are ending up? If you live in Ohio, you can check out the brand-spankin’-new state employee salary database.

The Buckeye Institute’s President David Hansen was pleased Ohio Governor Ted Strickland focused on reducing state employee salaries in his newly proposed two-year budget, but said

“…Ohio will still have an estimated 60,480 employees on payroll in FY 2010 at a total cost exceeding $4.5 billion. Our salary database should complement the governor’s overall effort, and bring additional attention to state employee compensation.”

“It is important Ohio taxpayers have access to public employee salary information,” transparency center director Mike Maurer said. “However, members of the public and groups like the Buckeye Institute should not have to compile this information. This type of basic transparency should be a responsibility of state government.”

You can also check out information on the Ohio state budget on Sunshine Review.