Transparency Necessary During Budget Process
Friday, June 26th, 2009 By Beth Lear
The news is out – we may have a new budget by the constitutionally mandated June 30th deadline! While that could be good news, the fact that legislators are hoping to complete negotiations on Saturday, expect the bill to be written on Sunday and have a vote on Monday – well, that’s not so good.
Candidate Barack Obama campaigned on the need for openness, especially with funding bills. He’s completely ignored that campaign promise. Ohio legislators can and should do better. While House Bill 420 from last session was a beginning, members and the public need more than a day or less to read 1,000+ pages. The Governor is talking about changes like increasing gaming to pay the bills and eliminating entire programs (many of which never should have been created at taxpayer expense) to cut the pork. The need for openness is even more urgent under these circumstances.
Missing the June 30th deadline and having to put a temporary budget in place is a small price to pay for transparent and accountable government.
