‘Online checkbook’ would help Ohioans monitor state spending

More than a year ago, state Rep. Mike Dovilla, R-Berea, and Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel proposed the establishment of an “online checkbook” for the state of Ohio.

Once up and running, a database maintained by the treasurer’s office would allow anyone to go online to see just what the state was paying for.

Dovilla introduced House Bill 175, which would require the treasurer’s office to establish the Ohio State Government Expenditure Database. It would be a searchable database that would allow filtering by category of expense, by payment made to specific vendors and other criteria. It would also include state and school- district employee salaries.

The legislation isn’t perfect. Though public- school expenditures would be available, charter schools are specifically exempt. Also exempt would be public-employee retirement payments. But while such favoritism is a problem, the protection of those sacred cows shouldn’t stand in the way of passage.

The day may come when the database could be expanded. That would happen only if the public sees the benefit of an open checkbook and its demands for legislation to provide more insight into how tax money is being spent outweigh objections by special interests.

BIPARTISAN SUPPORT NEEDED

HB 175 has four Republican and one Democratic cosponsors, but transparency in government should receive strong bipartisan support. During hearings late last year before the State and Local Government committee, the Ohio Public Interest Research Group (Ohio PIRG), the Buckeye Institute and the Ohio Newspaper Association testified in favor of the bill.

A member of that committee, state Rep. Ron Gerberry, D-Austintown, told The Vindicator that the committee will be voting on the bill June 3. That’s encouraging, because unless the bill is voted out of committee and gets a House vote before summer adjournment, it would be difficult if not impossible to get it through the Senate in the fall.

Obviously the press and think tanks — even ones on different ends of the ideological spectrum — are in favor of more access to records on government spending, but this is an issue that every taxpayer should support. If HB 175 passes, every taxpayer with a computer and some free time will be able to scour the budget for signs of waste or abuse.

Mandel acknowledges that the state’s budget is a huge document and an enormous amount of spending data would be online, but there are ways to organize the data so that anyone interested would be able to navigate it.

Much of the data, including state salaries, is already available on the treasurer’s website, but Mandel points out that Dovilla’s bill would assure that future treasurers would continue to post the state’s checkbook online.

FOUR OTHER BILLS MERIT SUPPORT

There are four other open-government bills that also should be expedited by the House — House Bills 321, 322, 323 and 324. They are sponsored by Rep. Mike Duffey, R-Worthington, and Rep. Christina Hagan, R-Uniontown.

These bills would establish DataOhio, which would increase Ohio public-records transparency by encouraging state and local government entities to put records online in formats that are easy to find. The bills have had multiple hearings in the House.

Across the state, some public officials have resisted records requests from the public and the press since the state passed groundbreaking “sunshine laws” 40 years ago. Sometimes it is because they misunderstand the state’s public-records law. Sometimes it is because they are under the mistaken impression that they — not the public — are the owners of the records. And sometimes they complain that responding to public-records requests is too burdensome.

House Bills 321 through 324 would not remove all the contention between those keeping the records and those seeking access, but they would eliminate some of the battles. In addition, passage of these bills would be a valuable reaffirmation of the basic principle that government records are the people’s records and should be treated as such.