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For Immediate
Release
4/23/08
Contact:
Lesley Crozier
(717)
787-1349
Sen. Browne Bill Would
Open Spending Records to Public
Senate Bill 1350 would
create PA Taxpayer Transparency Act
Pennsylvania taxpayers ultimately pay the
Commonwealth's bills; therefore, they should
have a basic right to easily monitor how
state government spends its money, according
to Senator Pat Browne (R-16).
With that in mind, Senator Browne
introduced the Pennsylvania Taxpayer
Transparency Act (Senate Bill 1350) on April
7. The bill received bi-partisan support and
was introduced with 22 co-sponsors.
"The Federal Funding Accountability and
Transparency Act enacted in 2006 created a
searchable website to increase transparency
and accountability in federal government
spending," said Senator Browne, Chairman of
the Senate Finance Committee. "Since then,
five states have enacted similar legislation
creating a similar website at the state
level. Four states have issued executive
orders opening the records and 12 other
states have legislation pending to open
their spending records. It is time that
Pennsylvania takes action as well."
SB 1350 would direct the Office of Budget
to create and maintain a searchable budget
database-driven website that the public can
access, for free, to obtain:
-
Information on grants and contracts provided
by government agencies. All
transactions above $25,000 would be
accessible to the public;
-
Agency performance indicators and quarterly
performance results compared to these
indicators;
-
Agency line-by-line appropriation analysis
including user-friendly detailed monetary
breakouts and detailed narrative
descriptions.
"Since the General Assembly has taken
steps in the past few months to improve the
way we disclose information to the residents
of the Commonwealth, I feel that this
legislation is another important and
essential step in that direction," Senator
Browne said.
Additional Information:
Reform
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