SB 87, will put KLC and KACO squarely under Open Meetings and Open Records law. The bill should be named Sylvia and Bob's bill (for the former heads of KLC and KACO)
FRANKFORT — Two bills aimed at making government and quasi-governmental groups more accountable to the taxpayers passed the Senate unanimously yesterday.
Senate Bill 40, sponsored by Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, would require all three branches of government to put their spending records online as a searchable database by January 1, 2011. The databases would be updated monthly, with information in the state’s electronic accounting system would be updated weekly. The information would include the amount and description of the spending, along with any documentation available electronically.
“This puts Kentucky’s checkbook online,” Thayer said of the bill, known as the Taxpayer Transparency Act of 2010.
Senate Bill 87, also sponsored by Thayer, extends the same requirements to the Kentucky League of Cities and the Kentucky Association of Counties, both funded by dues and insurance premiums from local governments. In addition, SB 87 requires an annual audit of each group’s finances, with the state’s Auditor of Public Accounts given access to the findings.
House leaders moved ahead with plans to come up with several workable budget scenarios for our Appropriations & Revenue committee to review and choose from as the budget process moved forward. Creating a workable plan under current revenue and spending constraints will admittedly be hard. But we believe it is doable, and that we can come up with ways to let certain state functions move forward despite dwindling state dollars. Presently, we are looking at a $395 million deficit in 2011 and a $750 million deficit in 2012. 