South Carolina bill banning taxpayer-funded lobbying failed

A few weeks ago, the South Carolina House of Representatives rejected a proposal that would have prohibited school districts from routing taxpayer money to fund bureaucratic advocacy groups, or taxpayer-funded lobbying associations.

Representative Boyd Brown introduced the budget amendment, which would eliminate taxpayer-funded lobbying and prohibit the use of tax dollars for dues at any “organization which employs a lobbyist.” The bill died March 18 by one vote.

The South Carolina Policy Center estimates that every dollar collected by government lobbying costs South Carolina’s economy between $1.60 and $1.82. And in the state, less than half of each dollar spent on public education reaches the classroom. You do the math.

While an outright ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying associations didn’t work out this time in South Carolina, one path concerned citizens can take is to follow the footsteps of journalists in New Hampshire, who ultimately made it so that New Hampshire taxpayer-funded lobbying associations have to be transparent. As usual, the prescription is for citizens to do the hard work to get governments to give up information.

The Importance of Hosting School Budgets Online

Corporate bailouts have been in the news as of late, but how about personal bailouts? Well, Charles Flowers, the superintendent of the Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education was found recently to be skimming the district’s cash account when his paychecks just were not enough. Oh yeah, and this scheme also included his two sisters and nephew.
Phil Kadner of the Southtown Star reported that

Less that a year after his election, he approved a $6,000 cash to his sister Barbara Flowers. “These repayments were to occur each pay period stating on April 4th 2008.”

When the state auditor general became involved it was found and reported that, “the payroll register does not show any repayments between this date [April 4, 2008] and June 30, 2008.” This money, paid out illegally, and unbeknownst to the taxpayers, was used for various personal purchases whose receipts have conveniently been hard to locate. When asked about the allegations of theft, Dr. Flowers claimed that the bills were “repaid from his personal bank account.” Apparently the money was taken and paid back, all without proper documentation that would come with having the receipts on hand. No harm right? It will be interesting to see what the Illinois State’s Attorney will think of that story.

When it is all said and done, I think it’s safe to say that the taxpayers of greater Suburban Cook County will be calling for greater transparency within the district’s expansive public budget.
Actions that Cook County taxpayers will likely call for might mirror the measures that just have been enacted in Freeland and Bullock Creek schools in Michigan. These two schools are the first in the state to post their checkbook registers online as part of a ‘Show Michigan the Money’ statewide transparency project by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Ultimately, something tells me that this will not be the last case of abuse we hear of within the public school systems in Illinois. This will especially be the case if the budgets become available to a wider range of taxpayers and watchdogs interested in where their money goes; both for planned projects and anything illegal in nature that might be going on.

Top Education Official Admits to Using Sunshine on Schools

I have been tracking the progress of the North Dakota Policy Council (NDPC) and their battle to bring transparency to government in North Dakota. One of the highlights of their transparency program has been the development of a website called Sunshine on Schools which is designed to track the spending and budgets of every school district in North Dakota.

Over the past few months I have posted extensively on their website and its progress. If you want to read these posts just visit Sunshine on Schools Garners More Support; Elected Official Praises SOS Transparency Website; and Spotlight on Sunshine … North Dakota.

Well now the main stream media has begun to pay attention to the transparency revolution being led by the NDPC. This past weekend the Grand Forks Herald, North Dakota’s 3rd largest newspaper did a great story about the Sunshine on Schools website. I encourage you to read the story (New Web site lists district information for all N.D. school districts) and see the impact that just a few people have been making on the issue of transparency.

I got a chuckle from the quote by North Dakota State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the state’s highest education official, where he admits using the Sunshine on Schools website to look up information just that morning.

I am quoting from the Sunshine on Schools website, The data on this website is directly from the North Dakota Department of Instruction. I must ask myself the following question – Why did the Superintendent of Public Instruction have to go to Sunshine on Schools website to get information that should be available on his department’s website?