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Open government, smaller government

(press release from Bluegrass Institute)

(BOWLING GREEN, Ky.) —– Jim Waters, the Bluegrass Institute’s policy and communications director, called this week for more transparency in state government during the 2008 session of the General Assembly.

During an interview broadcast Wednesday on the Public Radio Service of Western Kentucky University’s “The Midday Edition,” Waters told reporter Lisa Autry that the state’s secretive budget process encourages wasteful spending. (Click here to listen to the entire interview.)

“The discussion isn’t out in the open about how discretionary spending in particular is going to occur,” Waters said. “It can also allow politicians to trade projects back and forth, and not have to be accountable for that to the public. I don’t think that’s healthy.”

An increasing number of lawmakers have expressed concern about a lack of transparency related to decisions made about how the state spends taxes raised from hard-working Kentuckian.

Proposals by Rep. Jim DeCesare would allow lawmakers more time to consider the budget before casting a vote and create a Web site listing state expenditures of more than $5,000.

“I’m thinking . . . all the time ‘How can we keep this process open so everybody knows where the money is going and what it’s doing, and why their taxes are so high and why taxes are getting raised in budgets,’” DeCesare told Autry. “If you’re going to raise a tax, we ought to know where the money’s going to go.”

DeCesare voted against the state’s current budget, which contains $2 billion worth of debt and five tax increases.

“I don’t feel like we should be taxing our citizens so we can also borrow $2 billion,” DeCesare said. “I would take the same vote again if it came up because you cannot continue spending like that.”

Western’s Public Radio Service is a National Public Radio affiliate that covers 65 percent of the commonwealth.

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– For interview information, contact Jim Waters, director of policy and communications for the Bluegrass Institute. He can be reached at (270) 782-2140 or jwaters@bipps.org.

The Bluegrass Institute is an independent research and educational institution offering free-market solutions to Kentucky's most pressing problems.

Permission to reprint Perspective commentaries, in whole or in part, is hereby granted, provided the author and his affiliations are cited. Authors are available for interviews by contacting the institute.

Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions
400 East Main Avenue, Bowling Green, KY 42101

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