There is NO good reason that the State's revenue cannot be put on-line, daily--broken into three components: sales tax revenue vs. projections; income-tax revenue vs. projections, and fee-revenue vs. projections. (I know there are other State revenue accounts, but these are the interesting ones...)
Obviously, that's only a small part of the picture; the "expenses" side would be very interesting, too. It should be available, broken down by Department, and broken into operating vs. capital, also against projections.
Over the next several years, the "expense" side should be broken down by each spending-unit within each Department--in other words, all spending should be detailed on-line.
There are very large businesses in this country which have that information available to their executive team. The systems are written, albeit not for Gummints.
This is a matter of accountability and transparency in Gummint. About damn time it begins.
Sunshine is a wonderful disinfectant. Every single government account should be real time online visible. I’m sure the working public would find payroll disbursements a source of endless amusement.
ReplyDeleteWell, the Press would. Personally, I think that's voyeurism and I would not want that available to the public.
ReplyDeleteException: individual "consultants" at very high levels.
If letting the public know who receives how many tax dollars is voyeurism, then I’m all for the glass house. If the IRS can demand exacting details about the income of private individuals, then private individuals should demand the same lack of privacy from our public “servants” paid with the demands of the taxman.
ReplyDeleteFor the last, oh, million years, the gubbmint has DEMANDED transparency in corporate accounting.
ReplyDeleteIt's about time gubbmint lived up to the same standards.