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Editorial
State headed right way when it comes to transparency
Friday, March 20, 2015
Follow the money.
Deep Throat's advice in "All the President's Men" has been appropriate in American politics from the days of the Boston Tea Party through state budget wranglings and even the upcoming local option sales tax vote.
State Treasurer Don Stenberg's office is touting the B+ grade its transparency website, StateSpending.Nebraska.gov received in the U.S. Public Interest Research Group 2015 Follow the Money report issued Wednesday. Yes, they call it that.
StateSpending.Nebraska.gov received a numerical score of 87 out of 100, placing 17th among all 50 states in the report.
StateSpending.Nebraska.gov, formerly NebraskaSpending.gov, averages about a thousand visits a month, with the average user spending about 21⁄2 minutes on the site, viewing 21⁄2 pages per visit. Visitors came from 40 states, and the most popular pages were the University of Nebraska, State of Nebraska Contracts, Fiscal Year Expenditures and 2014-15 Expenditures.
The site would have scored higher, but last year, U.S. PIRG starting emphasizing economic development program costs and benefits to specific companies and the resulting benefits.
That's been an issue with Nebraska's business incentive programs, and state law prohibits the public disclosure of much of that information in many cases.
If it were, Stenberg said, Nebraska's grade would be 98 out of 100.
States got high marks for providing searchable "checkbook level" information such as recipient, keyword and agency for public benefits, anticipated or actual, of the subsidies.
Examples in Nebraska include LB775, the Employment and Investment Growth Act that helped bring the Valmont factory to McCook.
Others include the Nebraska Advantage Act, Nebraska Advantage Job Training Program, Nebraska Research and Development Act and Quality Jobs Program.
There are legitimate reasons for keeping trade secrets and business plans confidential, of course, but political expediency is not one of them.
And, privacy is precious to all of us, in this day when identity theft is easier and more dangerous than ever.
But when it comes to finding out how the public's money is being spent, that information should be just a mouse click or keystroke away.