Lawmakers must practice transparency they preach

Transparency. Great idea. Who could be against open and accountable government?

Utah legislators might also find it the best stress-reduction medicine as they conduct business. The 2008 legislature passed SB38, which lets taxpayers see how each state agency spends its money. It was touted as a law that would expose abuse and fraud, that would lead to good governance and is critical "for an informed citizenry." Lawmakers should try it themselves.

The state has now established a Web site, utah.gov/transparency, that would allow anyone to see how each state agency spends tax dollars. Searchers can spend hours trying to navigate through myriad Web windows giving all kinds of details: how tax dollars are spent on what, who got it and how much, and then what? What can the average citizen do with all that information? If abuse is discovered, who can and will do something about it? Who should be held accountable? What are the consequences for inaction? Right now, it's an exercise in futility that may lull citizens into believing the $115,000 cost of that legislation improves honesty in government. As of now, the transparency program only reports on where agencies spend money, not results.

People are careful when they spend their own hard-earned money. They want to know the reputation of the business they plan to use, the integrity of the owners, and if those owners run a reputable business. It seems taxpayers ought to have the same opportunity to assess the reputation and honesty of legislators as they carry out the business of overseeing the public's government agencies. Wouldn't taxpayers, the consumers, want to know how reputable and honest legislators are in running their lawmaking and oversight business? Seems responsible and honest lawmakers would welcome transparency in their lawmaking. Citizens would have greater trust in them overseeing their government. It also would help them see which legislator has a record of ethical conduct, and conflicts of interests that may exist.

If they want to restore the people's trust throughout government, legislators should follow the same transparency standards they have mandated for all government agencies, using the same format created for the Web site they established. They could start with a window listing all state legislators and the amount they received for their campaigns; next, broken down by the name of each contributor, followed by the amount of each, and then another listing how the money was spent; and a window listing the legislators with the legislation they sponsored along with their campaign contributors who would benefit from that particular bill, and listing any conflict of interest. That would do much to promote the ethics in the Legislature that lawmakers now struggle to establish.