Pushing Gov. Steve Beshear to show taxpayers where the state is spending our money has been a lot of work. The web site Beshear set up purportedly to provide transparency to government operations has been a bust. In fact, it doesn't even work:
Interested citizens looking for a way to set government back on a track of serving the public need search no further than spending transparency to find the soft underbelly of the bad politicians who have created our fiscal mess.
As more Kentuckians push harder to get government to show us the public check register, politicians will have a harder time saying no or, like Beshear, delaying beyond all reason.
We need more citizens asking their local governments to post public expenditures to the internet with details and in a timely manner. Within two weeks should be fine. Contracts, too.
In fact, if we got our school systems to do this, it is likely much of our funding "shortfall" situation would be cured.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Frankfort still hiding our money
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5 comments:
Franklin county Government doesn't even use email and those that do, don't reply. Same goes for city government. I'd love for pure transparency to exist.
Keep up the fight. Noticed this link on Twitter by the way
Thanks. I'm on facebook as well. If you use facebook (great site for political activists), please join "Where in the world is Kentucky's checkbook?" and ask your friends to do the same. I am totally convinced that pushing this issue is the only way for us to turn things around. It fits well with the power of the internet and it serves the interests of everyone. We can argue about what to do with our money once we get a handle on how it is being misused now.
I'll give you something to look at, check out Richie Farmers travel compared to the Governor office. When I looked, (recalling) Farmers traveling cost were 300% those of the Governor. This is just one of thousands of items of wasteful spending. Cars, paper pens, blacktop, travel, credit cards, office furniture, you name it and it is getting abused. Add thousands of eyeballs to the data and the thievery will be brought to light.
Just like the blogger world will eventually cause Adam Edelen to resign or Beshear will not get re-elected. Either way this is truly the information age.
Post more often on Twitter so we can keep informed. Tell your readers to "follow" you on Twitter too.
Transparency is needed at all levels of government.
The city of Louisville needs to put a Safari friendly map on its website that shows all the properties that are off the tax rolls, and how much each one is costing the city.
That would include profits as well as non-profit organizations, whether it be religious structures, e.g., churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, etc., or their owned businesses, such as individual houses that are then rented out for which no property taxes are paid.
Instead, the mayor wants to lay off city workers. City workers should not be bearing the brunt of these tax giveaways.
Neither should any economic stimulus grant of a tax break go on for perpetuity. There should be something like a sunset law that ends after 2, 5 or 10 years, depending upon the kind of business being established.
The state should do likewise. It should have a map of all the properties (for profit and non-profit), and how much each one is costing the state in lost revenues. Neither should these tax breaks go on for perpetuity.
Such a tax system should be proportional. It should be neither fixed nor flat. In Federalist Paper 12, Alexander Hamilton wrote:
"The ability of a country to pay taxes must always be proportioned, in a great degree, to the quantity of money in circulation, and to the celerity with which it circulates. Commerce, contributing to both these objects, must of necessity render the payment of taxes easier, and facilitate the requisite supplies to the treasury."
Hempy, the definition of proprotion is "A statement of equality between two ratios. Four quantities, a, b, c, d, are said to be in proportion if a/b = c/d"
That is also the definition of a flat tax. A 10% flat tax means if you make $10,000 you pay $1000 in tax or if you make $100,000, you pay $10,000. Equal proportions of your income is taxed.
Give an example of your "protional tax" system.
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