Open Records Law a Good Start

The open records law that took effect at the beginning of July is a great step forward for our state government.

Open government has many benefits. First off, as a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” to quote President Lincoln, it seems only reasonable that a government of the people should allow the people that it represents know what goes on within state government.

Open records also help make government more responsive and efficient. When more eyes see what actions are being taken within the state, better ways of doing business and cost savings can be found, which helps government be more responsible and accountable to taxpayers.

In addition, open records help prevent corruption in government. When we minimize the amount of closed doors in government, it’s very hard to cut back room deals when all the deliberation is out in the open for all citizens, media, and bloggers to see.

From the Vermillion Plain Talk:

Finding Funding...

Debate continues over how we’re going to find the resources to take care of our infrastructure needs in South Dakota. Legislators are now proposing raising fees on vehicle registration, as well as increasing gas taxes, according to the Argus Leader. Read more here…

Rather than increase fees on the citizens of our state to find needed funds, why not make sure that all our dollars being spent are being spent wisely? Online databases of government expenditures are great resources for ambitious individuals and press to go and look for wasteful uses of taxpayer dollars. Some states have implemented use of these databases to great success. As part of their state website, Alaska uses “Checkbook Online” to show where tax dollars are spent in the state.

Missouri found many different areas where the state was wasting millions of dollars. Through their site, concerned individuals were able to point out to Missouri that the state was spending $1.6 million at coffee shops, $278,053.46 at floral shops, and $70,849.02 at doughnut shops, among other things. All in all, over the past 8 years the state found more than $2.4 million dollars worth of wasteful spending. Read more here…

Utilizing the technology we have now, we can increase the efficiency of government, rather than increasing fees and taxes on the state’s citizens. The OpenSD site is a great start, and it could be expanded upon to allow watchdog groups, press, bloggers, and concerned taxpayers alike to hop on the internet and discover wasteful spending, and as a result help cut down on wasteful use of resources and allow us to divert them toward more worthy projects for the state.