Colorado Spending Transparency (COST)… It’s About Time
One of the more recent adventures the Independence Institute’s undertaken is the journey into the government spending abyss. Much like the National Money Hole, the spending abyss consumes our tax dollars ever quicker and ever more recklessly. Thus the need for some oversight and the creation of our Colorado Spending Transparency Blog to help promote sunshine in Colorado. Here is our mission statement:
We want the state and every other government in Colorado to put their check registries and contracts online in a searchable database. We want to know where all the money goes and not just from some annual report that breaks down a budget by category. Taxpayers and I have a right to know where and how every single dime of our money is being spent.
One of the first steps on this journey was citizen activist Natalie Menten’s work on the Jefferson County school district. She requested and received the credit card receipts from January 2007 to August 2008. These are the receipts from Jeffco teachers and administrators spending our money. The results are eye opening… $10,000 at Starbucks, an iPod, and a down payment on a Carnival Cruise just to name a few of the more questionable expenditures. To hear more on Natalie’s findings, take a listen to Natalie and Amy Oliver on our latest ivoices.org podcast.
Just like Natalie says, “It becomes very easy to spend someone else’s money, unless that someone is watching.” With that we stand by our motto of NO TAXATION WITHOUT INFORMATION!
