Lawmakers in Indiana Call For More Government Transparency

Friday, June 25, 2010 2:34 PM by Julie Borowski

In Indiana, lawmakers from both parties are pushing for more transparency in government. House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer (D- South Bend) yesterday called on the governor to share budget information and state contracts with the public. The same day, Republican State Senate leaders urged the governor to create a searchable transparency website that includes all spending and budget information. Regrettably, Indiana is lagging behind the states with accessible and comprehensive transparency websites. Upon assuming office in 2005, Gov. Mitch Daniels signed executive order 05-07 which mandates that all state contracts be posted on a searchable website however, the Indiana Public Contract Database hosted by the Department of Administration needs some drastic improvements. The site, while providing comprehensive contract information, does not provide users with many tools to locate and manipulate data, making the prospect of finding a specific contract difficult for the average taxpayer.

 We are pleased that Indiana lawmakers are jumping on the transparency bandwagon—we hope that this enthusiasm leads to lawmakers pushing actual transparency legislation in the next session. As we discussed previously, Indiana Minority Leader Vi Simpson (D-Bloomington) is expected to introduce a bill that would require that budget, spending and contract data be placed online. We hope that she follows through and her efforts are successful so that Indiana citizens are empowered to track where their tax dollars are going.

Tags: Transparency IN | Comments (0)