Arizonans can't see where the money goes

Arizonans can't see where the money goes

- Groups team up to push for greater transparency in government spending

By: Yvonne Gonzalez, Cronkite News Service
04/27/2010

PHOENIX - Arizona gets an "F" when it comes to helping taxpayers see where and how their money is being spent, according to a report released April 13 by an advocacy group.

The Arizona Public Interest Research Group, joined at a news conference by the Goldwater Institute, said government officials can improve that grade with a planned Web site detailing state receipts and expenditures and a bill that would expand that mandate to local governments.
Diane Brown, Arizona PIRG's executive director, says other states that have developed Web sites detailing governments' financial dealings save money by reducing wasteful spending and in the process restore the public's confidence.
"Arizona has no comprehensive Web site for people to see where their money goes," Brown said. "Once they have that information, the hope is that people in Arizona will follow the lead of other states and find ways to be more efficient with state and local government budgets."
A 2008 law requires the Arizona Department of Administration to create a public Web site by 2011 allowing the public to review in detail state government receipts and expenditures. A bill by Rep. Steve Montenegro, R-Litchfield Park, would require local governments and school districts to create their own sites by 2012. Brown said it is important for budget transparency to be expanded to the local level.
"Most people pay more attention to where their money is going in their community," she says. "They feel they can make more of an impact with what's happening at the local level than at the state level."
Montenegro said during the news conference that HB 2282, which has won House approval and is awaiting floor action in the Senate, would make government more accountable. "People should see where their money is going," he said. Montenegro said the expense local governments incur creating such sites would be worth it.
"If you're big enough to take taxpayers' money, then you're big enough to tell them how you're spending it," he said.
Montenegro's bill would apply only to local governments' receipts and expenditures greater than $5,000, but representatives of the two advocacy groups said the requirement is a step in the right direction and could lead to even more transparency later.
Byron Schlomach, an economist with the Goldwater Institute, a group that supports limited government and free enterprise, said in an interview some local governments purport to make detailed information available online but don't provide it in a useful format. For example, he said, expenditures such as expensive dinners and trips to nail salons can be labeled as "professional development."
"We want to know down to the penny where taxpayer money is going," he says.
Some opponents of the bill have said this isn't the time to be spending money on such Web sites, but Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, a co-sponsor of the bill, said that's exactly why the sites are needed.
"What a better time to determine where money is going," Pearce said. "If there was ever a time for accountability, it is now."