OFRG Urges Passage of Open Books 2.0
Oklahomans for Responsible Government (OFRG) commends the members of the Government Modernization Committee for passing House Bill 3422 and urges the full House to pass the measure. The bill will greatly improve Oklahoma’s Open Books website to allow taxpayers to see how the state is spending their money.
“The original Open Books website allowed Oklahoma to lead the way when it came to state spending transparency,” said Brian Downs, OFRG Executive Director. “But since then, other states have moved ahead, and now is the time for Oklahoma to improve its own transparency website with Open Books 2.0.”
The idea is to give more detailed spending information in the form of raw data that can then be sifted through and sorted by the press, concerned groups like OFRG and even the average taxpayer. Best of all, there will be no threshold for reporting, so every dime spent by the reporting agencies will be seen.
Appropriations and Budget Committee Chairman Ken Miller (R-Edmond) authored the bill. “Over the past few years we’ve put in place tools that make our state government more accountable to the taxpayers who fund its operation,” said Miller. “Open Books 2.0 will continue our progress by revealing unprecedented detail about how and where taxpayer funds are spent.”
The Chairman of the Government Modernization Committee, Rep. Jason Murphey (R-Guthrie) agrees. “By providing direct access to the spending data the state will allow the citizens to analyze spending data without it being filtered through the prism of government controls,” Murphey said. “This is a big step forward towards true transparency and accountability.”
While House Bill 3422 will improve transparency, lawmakers should not consider this the end of the line. OFRG would like to see data from every entity that receives state dollars from Higher Education to school districts reported and the basic program replicated in cities and counties around the state.
“The more eyes you have looking at the data, the more likely it is that questionable spending will be found,” said Downs. “As we’ve seen with the reporting of federal stimulus spending, questions from taxpayers have resulted in changes in how the money is being spent.”