Marta Mossburg: So much for transparency and the law
By: Marta Mossburg
Examiner Columnist
September 11, 2009
Who knew that laws passed by the Maryland General Assembly were merely suggestions? According to Gov. Martin O'Malley's office, the state will not follow a transparency law passed earlier this year by the General Assembly.
The State Funding Accountability Act, HB 1192/SB556, would finally have brought oversight to the more than $900 million in taxpayer dollars given to nonprofit and for-profit groups each year to fulfill the state's work. To put that figure in perspective, it is enough to give every person living under the poverty line in Maryland a $2,000 check every year.
O'Malley spokesman Shaun Adamec told The Examiner that budget cuts prevented building an online searchable database for the reports, due September 1, "so the project has not been pursued. DBM (Department of Budget and Management) is currently exploring its capacity to pursue it using existing resources."
He added, "We have not yet collected reports, as DBM/DoIT have not moved forward with the searchable database."
That's like saying I can't afford to buy a BMW, so I won't buy a car. Besides, nothing in the law says collecting the reports and having the database are mutually exclusive.
Co-sponsors of the legislation were not thrilled to find out the law was being set aside.
Del. Galen Clagett, (D-Frederick), said he would have like to have been informed by O'Malley about his decision. "I feel like a mushroom growing in the dark with manure thrown on me," he said.
Clagett said he and his fellow appropriations committee members need the reports to find out whether state dollars are being used as intended within state agencies, and whether they are even used.
Del. Susan Aumann (R-Baltimore County), said ignoring the legislation "does not sound kosher. ... All means possible should be taken to retrieve that information and abide by what was signed into law."
She questioned why the information could not be collected on paper and made available to taxpayers, who currently have no way to find out how their money is being used. "Couldn't they use Excel?"
The bill requires state agencies to submit reports to DBM by September 1 of each year on how nonprofit and for-profit grantees of those agencies receiving $50,000 or more each year use the money.
A fiscal analysis of the legislation said it would cost about $231,000 this year to hire a person to ensure agencies turned in their reports and for technical services.
The state faces major budget hurdles this year and recently cut $736 million from the budget. But if it can't build a database yet, why not hire a person? Better yet, why can't the governor reassign someone to this job? Despite 200 layoffs, Maryland government could hardly be described as understaffed after adding thousands of jobs to its ranks in previous years.
Maryland Assistant Attorney General Bonnie Kirkland said fulfilling legislation is "contingent on appropriations being made" for it. She added that some things are constitutionally required to be funded, like the attorney general's office or school aid, for example. But this law is not one of them.
However, delaying oversight at a time when billions of new federal dollars are flowing through Maryland from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and when every dollar deserves heightened scrutiny makes no sense.
And contrary to O'Malley, it would not take hundreds of thousands of dollars to get the law up and running. DBM could ask each agency to fill out a spreadsheet on its grant recipients.
The template could request the name and contact information of the grant recipient, head of the organization and its officers, years it has received state grants, the amount of grant, purpose of grant and outcome achieved using grant dollars. These spreadsheets could be combined into one easily searchable master document and placed on the Internet by DBM without having to build a fancy search engine.
All state employees need to fulfill this law is a little imagination and Microsoft Office. The $736 million in cuts did not take those away. And it would show that O'Malley respects the will of the people, even in hard times.
Examiner columnist Marta Mossburg is a senior fellow with the Maryland Public Policy Institute and lives in Baltimore
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