Kentucky's need for spending transparency is best demonstrated by the opposition to it by politicians of both parties and at all levels of government.
Take, for instance, the Kenton County Public Library. After Secretary of State Trey Grayson lit a fire under Gov. Steve Beshear to at least pretend to think about opening up the books, the library's board had a discussion about following suit.
They decided to follow Beshear.
If you go to the Kenton County Public Library site, then click on "About Us" near the top of the page, click on "Administration," then click on "Board of Trustees," and then go down to the bottom of that page and click on "2008-2009 Budget," you come to a spreadsheet that lists where the library's $10.04 million in income comes from.
That's not spending -- though I assume they spend it all -- and that's not transparency.
Library Director Dave Schroeder said he doesn't think the Board is inclined to do any more than they already have on providing spending transparency for taxpayers.
We have a lot of work to do to change the way our state operates.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Lots more work to do on transparency
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
This is the type of thing I have been predicting that will happen to any transparency efforts. Like most other things done in Frankfort and Washington, by the time any transparency bill gets past all the partisans and socialists and crooks, it will not offer the people much in the way of real honest to goodness transparency.
The complacency of the average Kentuckian regarding politics is easy to understand after watching this happen so many times before.
Post a Comment