Transparency Revolution

All those hours of reading news stories/think tank reports/etc. and posting comments on this blog paid huge dividends recently!! The Star Tribune newspaper in Minnesota published an editorial focused on my personal campaign to ensure the State of Minnesota complies with a 2007 state law which requires our Department of Administration to create a database/website ("webbase" is my new catch phrase) that shows any interested web surfer where the state spends our tax dollars.

Interested readers can see the entire editorial via this weblink --

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/editorials/18989324.html

Let me call on the readers of this blog to ask themselves-- "hey, does my state, city, county, school district government have a similar 'webbase' so I know where our tax dollars go?" If the answer is "no such tool exists" then find out why and what needs to be done to get one created. Here is the State of Oklahoma's spending website which I first reviewed today --

http://www.ok.gov/okaa/

This "webbase" could be a model for your own state spending tracking tool.

As for my next steps here is where my campaign is going:

1.) August 5 -- I am hosting a meeting where people responsible for Minnesota's state spending database law will be explaining the project. This will happen in St. Paul, Minnesota if anyone wants to attend.

2.) City government -- I am drafting a memo to attach to a copy of the Star Tribune editorial so that I can hand deliver copies to our Mayor and City Council members in Apple Valley, Minnesota. I know of no city in Minnesota that does this spending disclosure today so this is a great opportunity for my city to be a leader in being completely open and honest with citizens.

So what plans do you have to add to the transparency revolution?

Yours in tax slavery,

Todd