Government Transparency: Interesting sites and videos

Government transparency: We own the government so we have a right to know where our tax dollars go. But most of the time, especially at the federal level, we are treated like mushrooms: fed BS and kept in the dark!

Blessedly, last year the US Federal Government passed the DATA Act, which promises progress toward federal government transparency. Please check out this video that does a good job describing the importance of the Act. Note: it precedes the passing of the Act: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnn3IsOhulE

Here Gene Dodaro, the Comptroller General of the United States, talks about the importance of this Act and the challenges in implementing it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4klXlC42iJQ

The feds have already made substantial progress toward transparency in the past decade. For instance: maybe you’d like to know whether the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act made a difference to you. Input your zip code under the picture of the US map here: http://www.recovery.gov/arra/Transparency/RecoveryData/Pages/RecipientReportedDataMap.aspx to see how the Act impacted your community. Wouldn’t it be great if getting data on all government programs was as easy as that?

On the state level, Texas is doing a fabulous job with fiscal transparency. Run queries to find out what the state is spending, on which products and services, and through which vendor: www.texastransparency.org/State_Finance/Spending/

The State also is encouraging local governments to come out of the dark by ranking the transparency efforts of local governments such as school districts, cities, universities, and counties. If the local government will share its budget, financial report, and check register online, it wins a platinum rating! www.texastransparency.org/Local_Government/

I am ready for some sunlight! How about you?

Want to learn more about federal grants? Check out the Single Audit Bundle.