Massachusetts has been given an invaluable opportunity to address its current serious lack of government transparency. Many Massachusetts state representatives, including Sen. Patricia Jehlen (D-Somerville) and State Reps. Carl Sciortino (D-Medford/Somerville) and Denise Provost (D-Somerville) are sponsoring a state budget transparency bill with the goal of making information about the financial matters of state agencies available to the public. The legislation, which would establish one Web site with comprehensive, detailed records of all of Massachusetts' revenue and expenditures, is a vital step in enhancing public accessibility of knowledge about the state's management of its fiscal resources.
Full budget transparency is crucial to the maintenance of a healthy government in several ways. It deters corruption and irresponsibility by making any misallocation of funds easily discoverable, combats public apathy by offering ordinary citizens direct and simple access to information on programs they care about — which in turn increases confidence in the state government and its initiatives — and prevents politicians and pundits from making false allegations about government expenditures.
The measures suggested by the bill would replace time-consuming public document requests by providing a detailed research tool for gathering information on problems that can be adjusted in future budgets. They would also allow lawmakers themselves to track how the policies they propose are ultimately implemented, thereby increasing legislators' effectiveness.
Such a piece of legislation is critical for Massachusetts in particular. The U.S. Public Interest Research Group recently released a report in which Massachusetts earned a grade of an "F" for "incomplete" in government spending transparency. According to the study, 21 states have a higher level of transparency than Massachusetts. The federal government, along with these other states, has also recognized the importance of maximizing budget transparency. Under President Barack Obama's administration, the federal government has ordered the establishment of multiple online databases for observing its spending, such as USAspending.gov and Web sites for each state's allocation of its portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The comprehensive Web site recommended by the current Massachusetts transparency bill would serve a similar function to those of the federal government, but for residents of Massachusetts in particular; 31 other states have developed similar resources.
In the Internet age, when information-oriented Web sites like Google.com and Wikipedia.org are among the most popular online destinations, people expect complete and immediate availability of whatever knowledge they deem important. The way that the government invests its resources, much of which come directly out of citizens' earnings in the form of taxes, is too significant an issue to allow escaping public scrutiny. This is especially true in recent years, as many state budgets have been severely damaged by the recession.
The Massachusetts State Senate recently rejected the budget transparency bill's language when it was presented as an amendment to the state's economic development package, and the legislation is now being revised. When it again faces passage, the state government should make a serious and concerted effort to put the bill's measures into law. Improving efficiency and accountability must be a top priority in the Massachusetts legislative body's agenda, and that means passing the State Budget Transparency Bill.
