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Saturday, May 17, 2008
DeWine Statement on the Government Accountability in Spending Program “GASP”
Posted by Media Release
Here in Hamilton County we have the second highest County property tax rates of all 88 Ohio Counties. In this high-tax environment, taxpayers are increasingly concerned about the way that their hard earned tax dollars are spent, and voter confidence in the way government spends taxpayer funds has declined. To counter these trends, I am proposing the creation of the Government Accountability in Spending Program “GASP” to allow taxpayers to easily access clear and concise information on how their tax dollars are being spent. When implemented, Hamilton County will be among the first in the nation to voluntarily put a countywide program in place.
In September of 2006 Congress passed and the President signed into law the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, co-sponsored by Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK). The act created a publicly searchable website for all federal contracts and grants. This federal effort has spurred similar measures in nearly twenty States, including Ohio, as well as numerous local efforts.
Support for these transparency initiatives has transcended traditional party lines, pulling together coalitions from all sides of the political spectrum. The effort to increase transparency has even drawn the joint support of consumer advocate Ralph Nader and anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, who together in a 2007 statement noted, “We come from different policy and programmatic backgrounds, but here we arrive at the same conclusion: Transparency is one of the core principles of representative democracy.”
Here in Hamilton County, GASP will:
* Established a single, easily accessible website that allows the public to search and aggregate information on the expenditure of all appropriated or non-appropriated funds by any County department or agency.
* Ensure that information on any County payments, purchase orders, direct vouchers, electronic fund transfers, grants, leaseholds, contracts, and subcontracts are made public.
* Provide to the public the name and principal location of the recipients of County funds, the amount of funds expended, the type of transaction, the funding or expending agency, the budget program source, and a descriptive purpose of the funding action or expenditure.
GASP will contribute to the more efficient operation of County government and improve accountability in the way government spends money. The increased transparency and awareness created will raise voter confidence. In the often repeated words of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, “sunshine is the best disinfectant”. Increasing taxpayer awareness will also help to combat fraud, waste, and abuse, and will likely result in a significant government cost savings that can be passed on to the taxpayer. GASP will employ web technology to empower ordinary people to become citizen activists
In order to stay competitive, Hamilton County must embrace web technology as a way to hold government accountable and get things done. By adopting this cutting edge “google government”, we can ensure that we are on the government technology forefront. GASP will be a valuable tool in our efforts to curb spending and taxes, improve efficiency, and create a more open County government.
The right of the people to be informed about where their tax dollars are going is fundamental. GASP will help to create and preserve the kind of well-informed electorate that is vital to a well-functioning government. I strongly believe that this initiative will help to immensely improve Hamilton County government, and that the reforms it will generate will be a great benefit to Hamilton County taxpayers.
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17 May 2008 at 07:11 pm | #
If DeWhine wants to save taxpayers money - why did he and Heimlich have a policy of refusing the lowest bid contractor for county services - deeming them as not the “best, lowest bidder” because they had the audacity to sue the county at some point for violating previous contracts.
The county has wasted millions paying the “next highest, best bidder” because they have sour grapes when a contractor calls them out a contract violation.
As to this program—it will never save as much as was wasted with the Krings buyout contract.
DeWhine is a hypocrit - let’s not vote him to the bench, can you imagine how his punitive “do as I say not as I do” philosophy would do to the county
17 May 2008 at 11:13 pm | #
Mr. Dewine:
Good, but not good enough.
I’ve got many suggestions for improvement.
Shoot me an e-mail.
The Dean has my permission to give you this info. upon request.
18 May 2008 at 05:36 am | #
Fine. Don’t vote for him. But the GASP program is a good idea, and it should be implemented. Should we oppose a good idea because we don’t like what DeWine did in the past? I don’t understand that thinking. Can’t one support the idea, and not the person bringing the idea to the table?
Should government be about supporting the best ideas, one by one, as they come to the table? Or should we take bad ideas just because we like the person who thought of them?
18 May 2008 at 08:55 am | #
On the surface it all sounds good. And if the object is to catch actual misuse of funds, then good. Who could be against that. I suspect though, since not only DeWine but Brinkman is involved it’s simply a way to get ammunition to reduce and eliminate funding for the things that Republicans think are unnecessary. The arts and public education are just two examples. Probably each and every program that provides help for people in need can easily be attacked by the anti-tax groups with this information. Determining if funds appear to be spent wisely is a judgment call and I can see the Republicans trying to micromanage every nickle and dime and launching a campaign to further defund social programs. I don’t think it will have much impact on stopping the scoundrels. Blackwater and Haliburton have been outed and they still get contracts. Gross mismanagement of of Walter Reed, the Medicare program, insurance industries etc. have been exposed and there’s been no change.
18 May 2008 at 08:47 pm | #
Dean:
I am assuming that your comments were not directed to me, because I agree.
I will say that the messanger, to an extent, makes a difference.
That is why character and ethics means something.
Having said that, we are all human, and we all have our roles.
19 May 2008 at 11:43 am | #
If Todd Portune or David Pepper had proposed this Cincysuz would be gushing about what a great idea it was. As it is, she can’t see past her spite of anything that is not proposed by a Democrat. We get it - you hate DeWine. Let’s move on.
Who cares what side proposed this? This is something that people on all sides of the political aisle can get behind. It’s about saving money, sure. But it’s also about giving citizens the basic access to government information that they have a right to. Open government is good for everyone.
19 May 2008 at 01:21 pm | #
Dean, as we all know partisan politics is about making the other side look bad not about acting in the best interest of our society. Pat Dewine has introduced a powerful tool to enlighten citizens and hold government accountable and I can’t see where that could be construed as a bad idea. Give credit where credit is due people.
19 May 2008 at 04:38 pm | #
What will poor CincySuz do if her heroes Portune and Pepper sign on and support the G.A.S.P. initiative? Will it be like that scene in Scanners when the guy’s head explodes?
PS - this initiative was modeled after legislation co-sponsored by none other than Senator Barack Obama. DeWine/Brinkman and Obama all on the same side of an issue. Cincysuz’s world must be crumbling around her.
19 May 2008 at 05:11 pm | #
Dean, you’re right, I don’t trust DeWhine as far as I can throw him and his kids to the curb for a hottie.
But, this is an unproven program. DeWhine claims the start up costs are only 10K - but what is the maintenance and upkeep costs? I remember DeWhine and Heimlich posing the infamously stagnate “secret shopper” program - they claimed it would be free to implement. They ended up reserving 100K for the program that still has never been implemented. They put it out to bid and no one bid under the 100K max allocated.
DeWhine doesn’t know the meaning of “free”. 10K to start up, how many staff hours to maintain?
How much have these programs PROVEN to save in waste and abuse? How many “hits” have these websites gotten in the past (if hardly anyone uses it- there is no point, though media outlets will love it ‘cause it’ll save them lots of money on research)
Zero!!!!!
There are 2 ways to smartly do a new program 1) be the pilot project and receive federal / state funding to serve as the guinea pig and work out all the kinks, or 2) let some other county do the start up and uncover all the hidden costs and mistakes, then start your own.
Jumping in now doesn’t make fiscal sense - and the promoter never has.
20 May 2008 at 11:17 am | #
I’ll answer a few of the questions in the last post:
1) How many staff hours to maintain?
--The Auditor has believes he can maintain the database with current staff and within current budget. He has already done a ton of work and now has his own office expenditures posted online.
2) How much have these programs proven to save?
--This is a fairly new movement with most websites just going up in the last year. The State of Texas was one of the first to put a site up through the State Comptroller’s office. In the first year of operation she pointed to $2.3 million in savings from her office alone. Examples ranged from the small ($15,000 when they figured out they were paying for pager service for non-existent employees) to much larger ($250,000 when they realized that they were printing a report that was already being printed by another State agency and $450,000 by eliminating duplicate outside contracts).
3)How many hits have these websites received in the past?
--Oklahoma’s website has been open since only December of 2007 and has already received over 2 million hits.
As to your contention that we should let some other County do it first, that is frankly flawed thinking, and indicative of why nothing ever gets done in Hamilton County. First of all, numerous States already have their websites up, along with many school districts. Surely we can learn from them, and indeed we are. The Milwaukee group that manages their website has already offered to share the software they created with Hamilton County free of charge. Second, to be a successful 21st century government we have to embrace technology as a way to do business. That may require a little innovation on our part, but we should expect nothing less from our government. If we do expect less we’ll end up once again ten years behind our competitor counties. Hamilton County cannot afford business as usual.