A Call for Transparency Upgrades in Oklahoma

Wednesday, October 21, 2009 8:31 AM

Oklahomans for Responsible Government, a group dedicated to promoting transparency and accountability in Oklahoma, is calling for upgrades to Oklahoma's transparency website - and we agree. Oklahoma's OpenBook was one of the first websites to launch successfully, and at little cost to taxpayers, thanks to the leadership of State Sen. Randy Brogdon, who championed the bill that created the site. But, as the group points out:

It’s time for Oklahoma to again take the lead in transparency by creating Open Books 2.0, a new version of the website that provides unprecedented detail about how state dollars are spent.  Taxpayers deserve to have a searchable database of state spending available in real time, a centralized reporting system that streamlines the process and details on all expenditures, no matter how small.

This sounds like it might be difficult, but the truth is that the federal government is already requiring a higher level of transparency for the stimulus dollars than Oklahoma currently has for the rest of the state budget.  So the centralized reporting system is already being created and there will be great detail for stimulus fund expenditures greater than $25,000.  It doesn’t seem much of a stretch to expand that system to include all state spending.

Think about it, under the current system, Oklahoma taxpayers will know more about the estimated $2.6-billion in stimulus funds that will come to Oklahoma over the next two years than the roughly $13-billion or so in state dollars that will be spent over that same period.  Why should Oklahoma have two separate transparency systems?

OFRG has called on lawmakers to fix this inequity.  Behind the scenes, we’ve already heard rumblings of support at the State Capitol which is an encouraging sign.  Computer programs are always being improved to make them more user-friendly or add features.  Taxpayers should expect nothing less from Open Books.

And the Oklahoman puts it well when the paper editorializes:

Oklahomans are best served by a government that's as transparent as possible. And while the original version of Open Books has put Oklahoma on the right transparency track, improving transparency is an ongoing effort. Figuring out ways to provide even more information to taxpayers would be time and money well spent.

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