Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson has announced a new initiative that includes publishing online all expenditures made by his office. Grayson said the initiative is designed to create greater accountability for government spending to the Kentucky citizens.
“Taxpayers have the right to know exactly how their tax dollars are being spent,” Grayson said. “By publishing our spending online, citizens will have easy access to this information. I hope that this is just a starting point for Kentucky agencies and that soon, all of Kentucky’s government spending will be made available online.”
In addition to making spending information available via Microsoft Excel and PDFs every month, the Office of Secretary of State is also developing a searchable Web site that will provide expenditure information in near-real time.
Grayson’s efforts are similar to those across the country to increase transparency in government spending. In 2006, President Bush signed the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act. Sixteen states are currently moving to an open transparency model of expenditures either by law changes or by executive order.
Kentucky had legislation, HB 105 sponsored by Rep. Jim DeCesare, filed during the 2008 legislative session, but it was not given a vote in House Committee.
“Taxpayers fund every expense made by government – they deserve to track exactly how their tax dollars are spent,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. “Other agencies should follow Secretary Grayson’s example, and the legislature and Gov. Beshear should move swiftly to enact Rep. DeCesare’s spending transparency legislation.”
Add Comment