The Utah State Senate passed SB038, Transparency in Government Finance, today. The bill now moves on to the House for consideration. Interestingly enough, my senator, Dan Eastman, voted against this bill. I previously sent him an e-mail asking him to support this bill. Is Senator Eastman against transparency in Government Finance or does he have some great insight as to why this bill is a bad idea? I've sent him an e-mail to ask why he voted against it. If he actually does reply to a constituent, I'll post his reply here.
Update: Be sure to read Senator Eastman's comment posted to this blog.
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3 comments:
Hi Thad,
I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to respond sooner.
I voted against SB38 because of its affect on small government agencies, like charter schools. The bill, in its present form, will impose a heavy financial burden by forcing these schools to create a new position in charge of compliance.
Senator Niederhauser has since approached me with the possibility of introducing an amendment in the House which would create a $10 million budgetary floor. If the amendment is successfully introduced, I plan to vote 'yes" on the bill when it comes back to the Senate.
Thanks for staying engaged,
Dan Eastman
Sen. Niederhauser's ideas on government financing have the possibility of being truly revolutionary. In addition to the transparency bill, he's also trying to get a bill passed that would force each government agency to run audits every 4 years to justify their current budgets. Such measures will certainly increase accountability and help reduce waste.
Thank you Senator for this point of view. I appreciate the insight. If I remember right, a previous version would have allowed the entities to post their information on a state-run web site instead of requiring them to create their own. Thanks again for the insight.
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