Lawmakers must prioritize transparency

• Published February 26, 2008

A bill to bring more transparency to state government spending has passed the Senate unanimously. The House should follow suit and Gov. Chris Gregoire should sign Senate Bill 6818 into law.

The preamble to the bill states the goal simply and directly: "The intent of the Legislature ... is to make state revenue and expenditure data as open, transparent, and publicly accessible as possible. Increasing the ease of public access to state budget data, particularly where the data are currently available from disparate internal government sources but are difficult for the public to collect and efficiently aggregate, significantly contributes to governmental accountability, public participation, agency efficiency, and open government."

The budget transparency measure, pressed by the Washington Policy Center, a nonpartisan, free-market, state-based think tank in Seattle, quickly garnered support from state Auditor Brian Sonntag. "Citizens deserve to have as much information available as they desire," he said. "When government's doors are open, people have the access they need to see where their dollars are being spent."

Attorney General Rob McKenna also supports SB 6818. "Budget transparency is a laudable goal," McKenna told the policy center. "Citizens need to be informed about the cost of government and where their tax dollars are being spent."

The Senate vote of 48-0 sends a strong message to Democrats and Republicans in the state House of Representatives that the time for budget transparency has come.

But the unanimous vote hides some of the acrimony in the Senate before final passage.

Sen. Joseph Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, had successfully pushed the Senate to include personal services contracts and links to state Public Disclosure Commission data. Those personal service contracts show which consultants and businesses are getting state business and the PDC Web site shows who is giving money to candidates for public office.

Zarelli's proposal carried a rough cost estimate of $250,000. The full Senate stripped Zarelli's additions, then sent the bill to the House.

As the legislation now stands, the state will establish and make available to the public a state expenditure information Web site. The information for the prior fiscal year will include: state expenditures by fund or account; expenditures by agency, program, and subprogram; state revenues by source; state expenditures by budget object; and state agency workloads, caseloads and performance measurements. Information on expenses will be updated periodically as subsequent fiscal year data becomes available. A historical database of expenditures also will be maintained.

Passage of SB 6818 in the House is uncertain, largely because of the price tag. Setting up the new database is expected to cost $427,728 at a time when majority Democrats are looking to save money.

But Jason Mercier, government reform director at the policy center, is right when he says, "The only thing standing in the way of a searchable budget Web site becoming a reality is if our elected officials fail to make it a priority."