Saturday, November 29, 2008

Urge local governments to put spending online

Increased transparency needed to restore faith in government

Providing increased government transparency -- giving people more and better information on how government spends our money and how elected officials make decisions that affect all of us -- is a cause dear to my heart.

Too many decisions are made behind closed doors, diluting accountability of our elected officials and eroding public confidence in government itself. When elected officials make decisions in secret and without a record of their votes, they sometimes pass things they never would approve in full view of the public.

Earlier this year, I worked with Governor Sanford to create an easy-to-use spending transparency Web site. It contains detailed spending information for more than 80 state agencies, giving the public more access than ever to information about how state government spends their hard-earned tax dollars.

This Web site, which is available through my office’s site (http://www.cg.sc.gov/), is serving as a national model for other states attempting their own transparency initiatives. Several states have contacted me hoping to duplicate our open-government ideas.

Today, the Comptroller General's Office is working to help bring increased transparency to local governments -- towns, cities, counties, special purpose districts, and school districts. We’re reaching out to work with local governments to put their spending data online, even offering to host the information on our own Web site.

Any transparency movement, however, is likely to meet resistance from those who prefer that the public not know exactly how their money is spent and who see increased transparency as an intrusion on their authority and into their exclusive domain. Excuses vary: Some say it’s too costly to put the information online. Others say there’s not enough public interest. Still others question the motives of any citizen interested in looking at spending by local governments. I disagree with all these weak arguments. They’re nonsense!

Government absolutely needs to provide this information with no excuses. Call it an on-line check register. People want and deserve to know how their hard-earned tax dollars are being spent, and people can be trusted with this information. In this information age, it’s easy and inexpensive to do.

It’s unbelievable that anyone could oppose this kind of initiative with a straight face or a clear conscience. But this has to be done. I hope that local governments all over South Carolina will do so voluntarily. If they refuse, I’ll try again this year to get support from the Legislature to compel local governments to make this useful information conveniently available to the public at no cost. What could be more convenient to the public than providing this information on the Internet?

But before asking the Legislature to pass another law, I’m turning to the public for help. I’m asking people to make their voices loudly heard and contact officials of their own town or city, their county, and their school district. People need to insist to them that local governments post their spending on-line. If local officials haven’t yet heard about my offer to put their spending detail in one centralized location on my office’s Web site, tell them about it.

I’ll soon be holding workshops around the state to help any local governments interested in working with me on this. Look up phone numbers. Call your mayor, your representatives on City and County Council, and your school board representatives. Tell them that, as a voter, you feel transparency is the best policy. While it won’t cure all that ails our state, equipping citizens with the knowledge gained by better access to how their money is spent would hold our elected officials more accountable and would better safeguard the public trust.

In other words, this is a common sense matter of good government.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Tough times mean we must dig deeper to help those less fortunate

We usually see a strong upswing in charitable giving during the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. It’s not that those needing assistance are fewer during other parts of the year; instead it’s that the spirit of this season often moves people to give a little more.

But the current economic downturn has resulted in less giving than normal from people and businesses bracing for tough times. There are simply fewer donors, and those who donate are giving less.

At the same time, charities are seeing a major surge in requests for help, and many food pantries are struggling to stock their shelves. Harvest Hope Food Bank, a charity that distributes food to South Carolina families facing hard times, reports experiencing as much as a 50 percent surge in demand in some regions.

The combination of fewer donations and greater need means many more people face the prospect of a Thanksgiving and Christmas season that includes hunger. That’s not something we should be willing to let happen. It’s our responsibility – as people of faith and as human beings created in the image of God – to help our neighbors. There are four meaningful ways we can all make a difference.

-- Perhaps most importantly, we can donate money to a worthwhile charity that serves the poor, such as Harvest Hope Food Bank, Oliver Gospel Mission, or the Salvation Army.

-- If we can’t contribute financially, we can lend a hand. Volunteering your time and effort frees up money that charities can then use to buy food and other supplies.

-- We can search our home cupboards for surplus non-perishable food items to donate, such as canned goods, pasta, crackers, rice, oatmeal, powdered milk and peanut butter. There’s also a need for diapers and personal hygiene items such as soap and toothpaste.

-- We can hold a canned food drive at our office, church, school or recreation center. We can find other groups to do the same, and compete to see who can collect the most. My office recently had such a competition with the offices of the State Agriculture Commissioner and the State Treasurer. It was a fun and productive way to support a worthy cause – in our case Harvest Hope Food Bank.

Yes, times seem tough all around. But while many of us may be feeling pinched right now, remember that there are many people in far less fortunate circumstances. If we stop to reflect, we’ll probably realize there are many, many blessings for which we should be thankful.

In these hard times, those of us who have enough and more to meet our own needs should prayerfully consider sharing our material blessings with those not as fortunate as we are. If we can, let’s dig a little deeper. But if we can’t give monetarily, let’s look for ways to volunteer our time at least once during this special season.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Four keys to a brighter future for South Carolina

Another election has come and gone, and those fortunate enough to have been chosen by their neighbors for public service now must devote their election-year energy into governing during difficult times.

Even in the best of times, the challenges facing South Carolina are unique. For too long we've languished at the bottom in education, healthcare, and personal income. These days, we also face an economic crisis and serious budget troubles largely of our own making.

It's obviously time for some major changes. We can no longer afford politics as usual, or business as usual. To my mind, there are four major reforms that are needed if we're to truly move South Carolina forward.

First, we must increase transparency. There's a long overdue move afoot to draw back the curtains of state government so that more decisions are made in full view of the citizens who are impacted by those decisions. One such measure, the 2009 Spending Accountability Act, would require more legislative votes to be recorded on the record rather than to pass legislation by group voice vote. This would deter lawmakers from casting votes which are not necessarily in thepublics' best interests and allow voters to make better-informed decisions in the voting booth.

Also, I recently worked with Gov. Sanford to create the state's first spending transparency Web site. This site is linked to my office's Office Web site (www.cg.sc.gov) and contains detailed spending information for more than 80 state agencies. Like the recorded-vote legislation, this is an important step toward telling citizens how their money is spent, and holding those in charge of our purse-strings more accountable.

Second, must show more fiscal restraint. Government spending is growing too fast – way too fast. There's too much unnecessary spending -- such as state grants for festivals and other "pork" projects which should not be the function of state government. For conservatives in particular, we should return to our core principles of limited spending and less government.

One common sense proposal by Gov. Mark Sanford would limit increases in government spending to increases in the inflation rate plus the rate our population increases, which would prevent the growth of government from outpacing our ability to pay for it. Lawmakers would do well to give the Governor's plan careful consideration or to come forward with another effective plan to accomplish the same purpose.

Third, it's time to restructure government, so that it operates more efficiently and puts our tax dollars to their best possible use. The current system, designed in the 19th century, is outdated and unwieldy. It gives the Governor control of less than half the executive branch, which dilutes accountability.

A good first step toward restructuring would be to dissolve the five-member Budget & Control Board, the powerful central agency in charge of the state's finances and landlord functions, which usurps much of the power that rightfully belongs to the state's Chief Executive. One common-sense proposal would replace the Budget & Control Board with a Department of Administration, one accountable solely to the Governor.

Fourth and finally, some soul-searching is in order. We need to examine anew our philosophy about public service. It's time to put aside the petty partisanship and individual self-serving ways that keep us from reaching our potential, and put government back to work for the people.

While remaining true to principle and standing for what we believe is right, we must also recognize our need to work with good people who hold other viewpoints when it's in the best interest of South Carolina.

No doubt some of these proposed reforms will be met with cynicism. Frankly, there's a battle going on in Columbia between those who want to reform government and those who are content with the status quo. But if we're to truly move our state forward -- out of last place and toward a brighter future -- we must change the way our government operates and start doing what's best for the taxpayers.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

A Watershed Time for State Government

When you're spending other people's hard-earned money, it's just common courtesy to let them know how it's spent.

That's not a principle always embraced by government. Too often, tax dollars are spent under a shroud of secrecy, and decisions which affect your family are made out of public view.

Fortunately, this is a watershed time for South Carolina government. There's a growing movement afoot to improve and reform government, and chief among the reforms is increased transparency.

Earlier this year, I implemented a transparency Web site with Governor Sanford which allows anyone with Internet access to view spending data on state agencies. It’s linked to the Comptroller General’s Web site -- www.cg.sc.gov/ -- and contains detailed yearly and monthly spending information for 80-plus state agencies. The premise is that state agencies are far more accountable when their spending is done in the open, and the taxpayers should have as many tools as possible to find out how their money is spent.

Aside from allowing taxpayers to see how their hard-earned dollars are used, it should serve as a reminder to public officials that their spending will be seen, and therefore they should act responsibly with your tax dollars. Sunshine, as they say, is the best disinfectant.

Several weeks ago, a bipartisan group of lawmakers announced they’re renewing a push to have more legislative votes recorded for the public to see. There are too many “voice votes” on important issues, they rightly contend, and so they’re now leading a charge to have more votes cast on the record, in full view of the citizenry.

Like the spending-transparency Web site, this would be a tremendous step toward a more open, accountable government. Elected representatives who truly vote in their constituents' best interests should welcome this change.Empowering ordinary citizens with the access to how money is spent and how their representatives vote will help safeguard the public trust, hold those in charge of our purse strings accountable and allow people to make better-informed decisions in the voting booth. At a time when many believe there is a real crisis of leadership and trust in our country, these common-sense reforms are more important than ever.

Ultimately, an informed citizenry is the watchdog that ensures sound governance.

In an election year, "change" and "accountability" become political buzz-words, so it is encouraging to know there's a serious challenge to the "business-as-usual" mindset which is pervasive in Columbia. Other good-government reforms which will likely see vigorous debate during the upcoming session include restructuring state government so that it operates more efficiently, and capping the growth in state spending so that overzealous government doesn’t outpace our ability to pay for it.

But if we are to truly change the ways of Columbia, we must first change the way we view the role of government: We serve the people, and they have a right to know how we spend public money and how we arrive at decisions that impact them.

Good government can flourish best in full view of the public.