From the Deseret Morning News:
Utah Sen. Wayne Niederhauser predicts that within five years, most states will enact laws that allow residents to access government financial data.
For the 2008 Utah Legislature, the Sandy Republican has drafted a bill — one of his three priority bills — to create a free, easy-to-use, searchable Web site for Utah residents to see where their tax dollars are being spent.
The bill, SB38, would apply to all branches of the state of Utah, state departments, state colleges and universities, counties with at least 12,000 residents and cities with at least 10,000 residents, local and special-service districts, school districts and charter schools with budgets of $1 million or more.
The Web site would provide access to financial reports, audits, budgets and other financial documents, many of which are public, but normally are sought after by the public with a formal request under the Government Records Access and Management Act.
Niederhauser, who says he’s “always willing to talk about transparency,” said the idea behind the bill is to allow taxpayers to view and understand public revenue expenditures.
Senator Niederhauser will be recording an intervew at 11 AM with KVNU’s For the People. Because of the intense focus on the New Hampshire primary today and tomorrow, it will likely air on Thursday.
This looks like a great idea. Any thoughts?
-Tom
This is a great idea. I think it will do more to make media sources that are out of the mainstream (blogs) more valuable. People with an opinion and a website on which to publish will make great use of this newly available data.
Thank you Sen Niederhauser!
Somehow I missed this one completely, both here and in the D News, but this is a great idea.
I’d be interested to hear more about the challenges a project like this is facing (if any). Something like this could be set up very cheaply, and maintained a a very low expense, especially when compared to the transparency it would provide citizens.