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.