Since the launch of USAspending.gov in December, waste watchdogs have had greatly improved access to how, when and where the government doles out trillions in taxpayer dollars.
Now, a group of local lawmakers hope to duplicate that transparency in Virginia — where data on state expenditures remain a confusing and inaccessible tangle.
In a rare bipartisan push that includes Fairfax Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, a Republican, and Sen. Chap Petersen, a Democrat, legislators plan to roll out a bill Tuesday that would catalog spending data online. About a dozen states have created similar databases, said Natasha Altamirano, spokeswoman for the National Taxpayers Union, an Alexandria-based nonprofit.
“It definitely will benefit taxpayers, so they know where their money’s going and how it’s being spent,” she said. “It will lead to more transparency and accountable government.”
Even members of the General Assembly can have a tough time accessing budget information, Cuccinelli said. He wants to tie the database into an existing Web site — Virginia Performs — which measures the performance of state agencies.
The bill would compel the Department of Planning and Budget to make the Web site operational by July 1 next year, according to a draft copy of the legislation. It will be introduced for the 2008 session that begins Wednesday.
Opposing the database could put legislators in a politically untenable spot, according to advocates.
“This is a win-win situation,” said John Taylor, president of Tertium Quids, a Gainesville-based nonprofit advocating smaller government, who is heavily involved in the legislation. “They either [support] the legislation, or they have to explain why they are against transparency.”
The confusion over state expenditures manifested in October, when the House’s Republican leadership claimed to have discovered $170 million in unspent agency balances that could be put toward a $641 million shortfall. The GOP alleged Gov. Tim Kaine hid the monies to justify tapping a “rainy day” fund to close the deficit, which the governor denied.
The database wouldn’t prevent such disputes, Cuccinelli said, but would “narrow the opportunity for it to occur” by allowing taxpayers to check for themselves.
