|
|
|
Our current economic challenges have caused many Americans to rethink the way they handle their personal finances, and it has prompted a renewed interest in the way government manages our hard-earned tax dollars. While this renewed interest has primarily focused on the growing debt of the federal government, the reality is that states and local governments are also taking on record levels of debt. One of the best ways to ensure governmental accountability to the hard working citizens whose tax dollars pay the bills is through an open and transparent process where information is easily accessible to the taxpayers.
All too often, the transactions of our state and local governments are conducted in difficult and complex manners. While this is normally not done intentionally, it still leads to confusion and misinformation during the public policy process. For example, earlier this year, a community in Missouri issued millions of dollars in economic development bonds without a reliable revenue stream in place for repayment. Unfortunately, the company went into default before the doors were ever opened leaving someone (either the taxpayers or bond holders) on the hook for millions of dollars in losses.
Over that last several months, we have held legislative hearings in an attempt to understand exactly what and how this happened. When complete, we will be making recommendations for public policy changes so that the appropriate checks are in place to hopefully keep this from happening again. During this process, we discovered that there is no centralized place where a citizen can go to find out about the full indebtedness of the community in which they live and pay taxes. As a result, last week we passed legislation out of the Senate that requires Missouri’s governmental bodies to disclose their indebtedness and repayment revenue stream on the Missouri Accountability Portal website.
Our current economic challenges have caused many Americans to rethink the way they handle their personal finances, and it has prompted a renewed interest in the way government manages our hard-earned tax dollars. While this renewed interest has primarily focused on the growing debt of the federal government, the reality is that states and local governments are also taking on record levels of debt. One of the best ways to ensure governmental accountability to the hard working citizens whose tax dollars pay the bills is through an open and transparent process where information is easily accessible to the taxpayers.
All too often, the transactions of our state and local governments are conducted in difficult and complex manners. While this is normally not done intentionally, it still leads to confusion and misinformation during the public policy process. For example, earlier this year, a community in Missouri issued millions of dollars in economic development bonds without a reliable revenue stream in place for repayment. Unfortunately, the company went into default before the doors were ever opened leaving someone (either the taxpayers or bond holders) on the hook for millions of dollars in losses.
Over that last several months, we have held legislative hearings in an attempt to understand exactly what and how this happened. When complete, we will be making recommendations for public policy changes so that the appropriate checks are in place to hopefully keep this from happening again. During this process, we discovered that there is no centralized place where a citizen can go to find out about the full indebtedness of the community in which they live and pay taxes. As a result, last week we passed legislation out of the Senate that requires Missouri’s governmental bodies to disclose their indebtedness and repayment revenue stream on the Missouri Accountability Portal website.
