Howard County Councilman Greg Fox, R-District 5, and Council Chairwoman Courtney Watson, D-District 1, should be praised for introducing legislation to make information about county grants and loans of at least $30,000 available on a searchable Web site.
The proposal would make it much easier for residents to find out how their money is being spent and by whom. And it would have the side benefit of deterring waste and fraud, as many more eyes would be scrutinizing spending. This is not a partisan issue and is especially important in tough budget times like now.
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Gov. Martin O?Malley has endorsed transparency in principle by creating StateStat, a statistics-based way to monitor the performance of state agencies. And Howard Republican Del. Warren Miller has introduced a bill to help Marylanders track state expenditures. At the federal level, Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., made finding out how your tax dollars are spent much easier by championing the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006. The product of that law is USAspending.gov ? which allows users to track federal grants, contracts, earmarks and loans through a search engine.
Every Maryland jurisdiction should create a spending database. If the slow-moving and high-spending federal government can do it, there is no reason counties can?t create their own systems ? and share with one another the technology and expertise to help others launch searchable Web sites more quickly and cheaply. Baltimore City is one place that would hugely benefit from the sunshine a database would bring.
It is virtually impossible to search for city contracts without knowing the date the City Council voted to approve it, the contract number or the name of the company who received the contract. Plus, you have to show up in person at the city comptroller?s office to request information. That creates a situation ripe for waste and fraud.
City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake should follow the example of her colleagues in Howard and in the state legislature and of presidential candidate Obama, whom she endorsed, and make Baltimore City an example for the rest of the state in transparency. In these strained budget times, the city can not afford to hide how and with whom it does business.
Speak up
A hearing to debate the Howard County transparency bill is scheduled for Monday. Click the name of your Howard County Council member and let him or her know you support the bill:
» District 1: Courtney Watson
» District 2: Calvin Ball
» District 3: Jennifer Terrasa
» District 4: Mary Kay Sigaty
» District 5: Greg Fox
» All, by phone: 410-313-2001
Contact Baltimore City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to tell her to sponsor a transparency bill for the city at:
» Phone: 410-396-4804
