Transparency movement picking up steam

Kentucky's mainstream media has been strangely absent from the effort to put the state's public checkbook on the internet for everyone to see.

But that may be changing.

This passage appeared in a Lexington Herald Leader news story by John Cheves on Thursday:

""We're talking about furloughs and wage freezes and possible layoffs for state workers, and yet the governor is still putting his cronies behind desks," said Jim Waters, spokesman for the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, a free-market think tank in Bowling Green."

""It's way past time for us to rein in state spending," Waters said. "We need to examine every penny we're spending, and, if we did, neither one of these hires would have been approved as a critical public need.""

The effort to open up state spending to public view is certain to get a big boost next week. That should be a clue for the mainstream media and the Beshear Administration to get on the stick.