Voting & Democracy News

Oregon became a “Google Government state” today, after the Oregon House of Representatives gave final approval to House Bill 2500.  The Senate approved the bill over the weekend.

HB 2500 would establish a one-stop, online website to allow Oregonians to see how their tax dollars are being spent, often referred to as “Google Government”, in reference to the leading Internet search engine.  The program is modeled off websites in at least 25 other states (and the federal government (www.USASpending.gov).  The bill is sponsored by a bipartisan team of legislators: Representatives Arnie Roblan (D), Kim Thatcher (R), Jefferson Smith (D), and Gene Whisnant (R). 

“We commend Representatives Roblan, Thatcher, Smith and Whisnant for leading Oregon’s charge towards Google Government,” said OSPIRG Executive Director Dave Rosenfeld.

A recent OSPIRG report, Transparency.gov 2.0, found that Oregon lags behind other states in making tax spending easily available to voters online, but could quickly become a leader.  See a comparison of how Oregon compares to other leading states.

To its credit, Oregon has taken steps in the right direction.  The Tax Expenditure Report details all the lost revenue associated with various tax programs.  ORPIN discloses some, but not all state government contracts.  The Economic and Community Development Department did a one-time report in 2008 outlining what companies received tax breaks, and the jobs that were created.  The Secretary of State posts all audits they do on state agency operations.

However, these steps have critical deficiencies:

 - Scattered.  Voters have to look at multiple websites for the correct information. 

 - Buried.  Most of the above information is buried deep in the bowels of obscure agency websites.

 - Incomplete.  The Tax Expenditure Report does not detail what companies received tax breaks, nor the value that taxpayers got from those expenditures – measurements that are critically needed in order to evaluate these expenditures.  Similarly, ORPIN only covers contracts under certain departments, excluding millions of dollars in contracts issued by large agencies such as the Department of Transportation, and by local governments.

 - Not user friendly.  States around the country and the US Government are moving to searchable databases, where voters can easily find the information they are looking for and create comparison tables.  Oregonians are still stuck with densely worded reports that intimidate even the most fearless muckrakers. 

HB 2500 will solve some, but not all of these problems. HB 2500 will begin the process of consolidating much of the existing transparency information into the website.  And it will establish a “Transparency Oregon Advisory Commission” to drive further improvements to the website in future years. 

Consequently, the Advisory Commission will be critical to making the remainder of improvements necessary for Oregon to truly become a leader.

“HB 2500 is an important first step towards making Oregon a Google Government state,” said Rosenfeld, “To make this a slam dunk, it must also include local contracting, companies that get tax breaks, and the jobs that are created from both contracts and tax breaks.”