Transparency bill moves to House floor
DENVER – The Colorado Taxpayer Transparency Act moved forward Friday, unanimously clearing the Senate Appropriations Committee after clearing the chamber’s Finance Committee 7-0 the day before.
It now must weather the scrutiny of the full Senate, which could come early next week.
The bill, which originally required more detailed accounting of state spending, now reflects the less specific guidelines of an executive order issued by Gov. Bill Ritter in early April.
Finance Committee member Sen. Rollie Heath asked Sen. Mike Kopp, the bill’s Senate sponsor if the amended bill would answer public calls “for total transparency.”
“You used the words ‘complete and total’. I don’t know Sen. Heath. I think if you look at this as a bell curve, probably we catch most everybody,” said Kopp, R-Jeffco. ” I think in that sense it’s as good a policy as we could possibly hope for.”
The bill reflects the executive order’s hedge of allowing spending to be lumped together in broad categories.
Dara Hessee, legislative liaison for the governor’s Office of Information Technology, said posting millions of line item expenditures online could and accounting codes “could create a significant amount of confusion by users.”
But the bill would set the policy in law, ensuring that a future governor could not simply withdraw the order.
Supporters of Kopp’s bill welcomed Ritter’s order as a move in the right direction.
Some, though, believe the order is too limited, offering only a broad picture of government spending instead of the more detailed requirements in HB 1288.
“It is a welcomed first step,” said Amy Oliver Cooke, spokeswoman for Colorado Spending Transparency. “But it is little more than a first step and a weak one at that.”
Cooke took exception to one provision in the executive order, and now in HB 1288 as amended in the Finance Committee. That provision says: “where access to each individual transaction is likely to hinder, rather than foster this goal (accountability), the system may provide access to aggregated information.”
“That’s a loophole big enough to hide much of the government spending Coloradans demand to see,” she said Wednesday. “Let taxpayers see how the state spends their money and they can decide if the details help or hinder accountability.”
The bill last week won overwhelming support on the House floor, where it passed 61-4. Reps. Gwyn Green, D-Dist. 23; Joel Judd, D-Dist. 5; Su Ryden, D-Dist. 36; and Sara Gagliardi, D-Dist. 27, cast the four votes against the bill.
Cooke said she remains “cautiously optimistic” about the bill’s chances in the Senate, which passed a similar bill that would have required schools’ to post their finances by a 28-6.
That legislation, the Public Schools Financial Transparency Act, later died in the House Education Committee, where Democrats dumped it by an 8-5 vote.
Ritter’s order established the Transparency Options Project (TOP) to implement online access to state government’s spending and revenue records. It will be compiled through the Office of Information and Technology and the Office of the State Comptroller.
HB 1288 is the only survivor among three transparency bills presented in the current session of the legislature.
SB 57, which died in the House Education Committee, would have required school districts to compile their spending and revenue in an online searchable database. Districts and charter schools with no web access would have been exempt.
Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch and Rep. Amy Stephens, R-Dist. 20 sponsored the bill.
Another bill, SB 236, never cleared committee. It would have required school districts to conduct at least one public hearing before building a school, providing neighbors of the school site a chance to comment.
