The Flash Report’s “Blog Scan” page is a great resource to track the daily events in Sacramento and I frequently read the articles posted. I couldn’t help but notice that the California Majority Report recently posted an update by Steve Maviglio titled, “De León: Greater Transparency Need in State Spending.” Maviglio details De León’s Assembly Bill 400 which will require state agencies to post their general and federal fund expenditures online. Maviglio speculates that De León got the idea from President Obama’s promise to track stimulus spending. However, this idea is certainly not new nor is it Obama’s creation. My Republican colleagues and I have introduced similar legislation only to have it stalled in committee. In fact, last year I introduced AB1843 (known as the Public Access to State Spending or PASS Program) that would have required the Department of Finance to create an online searchable database of state expenditures that would be accessible to the public. I strongly believe that the public has the right to know how and where their tax dollars are being spent. While I am pleased that our Democratic colleagues seem to be warming to the idea, I am still left wondering why it took so long.
