Louisiana Makes Progress Towards Transparency
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has followed through on his campaign promises by getting LaTRAC up and running ahead of schedule. This system is a great step forward regarding good government and transparency. It’s capabilities include:
- Allows citizens to drill down to see every expenditure to date during current year, and previous year totals
- The detailed expenditure item will have the amount spent and vendor information
- Analytical tools allow sorting by category alphabetically (departments, agencies or vendor) or by amount
- The website also features bar and pie charts of the expenditure and expenditure categories
- Citizens searching expenditures by department can also click to open a link to that department’s performance measures
- Lists cabinet and appointed position salary information.
A statement from Gov. Jindal on the front page says it all…
An honest government has nothing to fear from openness, and I hope you will use this site to ensure that your government is working for you, the people, and not special interests.
A very brief review of the top budget items reveals that $353,855,835.37 was transfers (Aid) to local governments. The local government is being “aided” by the State. The State is being “aided” by the Federal Government. And the Federal Government can print money. Inflation is something most have forgotten. In 1980 the Prime Rate was over 20%.
The Delaware Curmudgeon is hosting a discussion of this topic and as She says,
Delaware, are you listening?
This is an exciting development and we look forward to seeing it implemented in Delaware. We all have to report our budgets to our bosses. Here is a case where the State reports directly to its’ bosses – the citizens.
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