Transparency Bill wins unanimous approval in State Senate

State Sen. Mike Kopp, R-Jeffco, guided transparency bill through Senate.

DENVER – The Colorado Taxpayer Transparency Act cleared the state legislature Tuesday, sailing through the Senate 35-0.

Gov. Bill Ritter, who is expected to sign the bill, already has established a similar system by executive order.

House Bill 1288 puts the state’s checkbook online, requires updates every five days and establishes a rolling 10-year database once it is fully implemented.

The bill was compiled by State Rep. B.J. Nikkel, R-Dist. 49, and co-sponsored by State Sen. Mike Kopp, R-Jeffco.

Ritter’s executive order established the Transparency Options Project (TOP) to implement online access to state government’s spending and revenue records. The Transparency Act would set Ritter’s policy in law, ensuring that a future governor could not simply withdraw the order.

During last week’s Senate Finance Committee hearing, Kopp told the committee that the governor has agreed not to oppose the bill.

Natalie Menten, a Lakewood resident who helped organize the state’s transparency movement, said Tuesday’s vote was delivered by a grass-roots lobbying effort.

“Citizens won today thanks to the hundreds of people who testified, e-mailed and called for detailed, transparent state government spending. Now we’ll start working on the thousands of other government entities in Colorado,” Menten said.

Menten’s website, which provides a searchable database of government spending records, became a standard by example during committee proceedings on the Transparency Act. The site, which Menten and a friend put together on a shoe-string budget, allows users to search and compile spending records based on categories such as purchasers, vendors and uses.

“Whether it’s the check register or the credit-card purchasing, government spending can easily be put in a searchable database like my website,” Menten said. “With common technology, there’s no barriers anymore, unless a government wants to hide how our money is spent.”

The bill largely reflects the executive order’s wording on what data will be posted and could allow 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 create a significant amount of confusion by users.”

When Senate Finance Committee member Sen. Rollie Heath last week asked Kopp 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 last month 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.

HB 1288 is the only survivor among three transparency bills presented in the current session of the legislature.

SB 57, which Democrats killed in the House Education Committee on a party-line vote, 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 that 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.