• Mission
• Abstract
• Overview
• Information Breeds Communication
• Creating 10,000 Auditors
• Keeping it in Perspective
• Culpability
• Is Local Gov't This Important?
• Size
• Economic Power
• Sharing Information
• What's Available Now
• Focus
• Needs
• Appendix A: Significance of the Eye/Pyramid symbol
• Appendix B: WNY counties
• Appendix C: List of WNY Municipalities
• Appendix D: Example: List of Municipalities in Allegany County, N.Y.

Following The Money

An Education on Local Government

Winter 2005

F.A.I.R. Government

P.O. Box 402

Buffalo, N.Y. 14223

www.fair-government.org

FAIR Government is an acronym for Fiscal Accountability, Integrity and Responsible Government. The mission of this not-for-profit educational organization is to provide a greater awareness of local government spending practices to the broadest possible segment of society. In short, every penny of local government revenue (taxes) and appropriations (spending) should be easily viewable by the general public. Detailed budgets should be publicly available and, as near as possible, accountable for each penny raised and spent. FAIR Government believes the ultimate benefits derived from this work will include: Better media coverage, greater public awareness of government, increased voter participation and more competitive elections - just some of the benefits which will be the outgrowth of publicly available budget information.

Government is a necessary part of our society - arguably the greatest society we’ve ever known. But more and more, government is forcing choices on people that seem unpalatable: curtail social programs, eliminate school programs, close parks or cultural institutions, lengthen times between routine maintenance on fixed assets such as roads, bridges or government property/buildings until they are in a state of disrepair. Or, tax business much higher than individual households and watch as industry and development dries up. Industry doesn’t vote, they just quietly leave for better business climates.

And yet, with such hard choices, taxes still arch higher.

All of the above-mentioned choices are very real decisions. Our friends and neighbors are our local officials. They are not evil people. The choices they face are very real, and elected officials agonize over them more than we realize.

People are creatures of habit. If they are kept in the dark and given virtually no choices, or only asked to approve decisions forced upon them without many facts, they become apathetic. Conversely, given all the facts, most people will swallow hard and endure just about any crisis that comes along. So why aren’t more facts available to voters on a demand basis?

This book by David Elias predicts a robust DOW will reach these heights by 2012 at the latest.

Historically, government spending in total has averaged between 30% and 35% of GDP, or a similar measure of the economy. Currently the number is at an all time high of 37%. Imagine then, if the economy were to grow as fast as some investment authors have suggested, where the DOW Industrial Average hits 40,000 or more (this book predicts such events by 2008 - 2012). If the economy expands - to any level much less these lofty predictions, does government spending necessarily need to expand also? How much government spending is enough? Truth is, we have no idea.

Until very recently, there was no way to provide the quantity of fiscal facts and data to people, much less make them available to everyone that wanted to view them, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The sheer volume of documents that could be made available were prohibitive because of copying costs, storage costs and other varied problems arising from the bulk. But, in this day and age, the Internet is the one place that can house every bit of data any citizen would like to know, and make it available at anytime the viewer demanded it. Obviously we’re all familiar with the powers of the Internet. Vast quantities of information are available to anyone,

anywhere at anytime. They are cataloged, available for side-by-side comparison and discussion. Currently, the quantity and clarity of local government fiscal data is inadequate.

FAIR Government seeks to acquire local government budget data, upload it onto the Internet in a readable fashion, and constantly expand the level of information until you can literally account for every penny of government money raised and spent in any particular year.

And, with tough budget choices squarely on the table for discussion, the general public will take ownership of issues facing our local leaders. People will understand the reasons for cutbacks or, more likely, be able to come up with varied solutions.

And, let’s not forget that local government officials sometimes operate in an information vacuum also. The information that FAIR Government will provide allows budget planners in municipalities the opportunity to see how other towns and villages confront similar issues and challenges.

Imagine a scenario where a municipality is facing a fiscal crunch. Cuts are proposed. Voters get angry and take their anger out at election time by staying home. Nothing gets solved. Fewer services, angry citizens, elected officials who are resented.

Now, imagine the entire municipality budget is online for every resident to view - in detail that allows people to see every appropriation - clicking their way into greater and greater detail. Now an intelligent discussion can be held regarding the cuts that can be made, and perhaps someone in the community has a better idea. Perhaps bus service can be saved if we cancel out-of-town travel for one year. Perhaps schools can continue their football program if a less important program or service is cut.

By posting detailed local government budget information online citizens would undoubtedly come up with alternatives to cuts, or be willing to pay more for services. Certainly the media would be able to increase the commentary if more information was easily available.

Too many voices and too much debate can ground things to a halt. We’re not suggesting this be the case. But we’re not talking foreign policy here. Local governments don’t have military actions or vast economic programs. In 99 out of 100 cases we’re simply talking about the allocation of money for vital services and routine tasks.

There is a natural reaction to be defensive when people ask for more information. This shouldn’t be the reaction to FAIR Government. It’s not a “blame” game type of organization. Far from it.

When talking about “who’s to blame” situations someone will undoubtably say “we should not get into the blame game.” Casting blame gets us nowhere; we make no progress complaining. But that’s exactly what happens when there is a lack of information. To suggest providing detailed budget information would result in “blame” is ludicrous, and detrimental to progress. FAIR couldn’t agree more that “blame” is not the goal of information dissemination, nor is it healthy to simply cast aspersions because of how situations have been handled.

There is a marked difference however, and one that is crucial to proper analysis of budget data, to discern the culpability for any decision, be it the allocation of any government resource. Once people see what resources government has at its disposal, and what government doesn’t have, and how resources are allocated, and where culpability lies, growth can occur. Every situation a community finds itself in is the result of a human decision. If we understand what information constituted a decision, and who makes a decision (culpability), we’ll better be able to decide whether decisions are the best they can be, and how better decisions can be made.

The size and economic impact of local government should require greater focus. If not for greater citizen participation then surely to harness the economic power and better understand it.

How big is Local Government? Nationally, there are more than 87,000 units of local government. In New York State there are more than 4,400 units.

A quick look at one of the smallest counties in the WNY region - Allegany County - shows 40 elected units of government and 560 elected or high-ranking appointed government officials (Appendix D).

The size and number of Government officials should demonstrate how large of an impact local government has. Should there still be a doubt, consider the economic power. It would be helpful to have the exact budget numbers for every community listed in Appendix C. That will be an immediate goal of FAIR. For general purposes however local government spends between $1.5 and $2 billion dollars annually in the WNY region. There is no single private company which spends this much money.

Not as much information-sharing goes on as you would think. With no one central place where fiscal data is housed, it has always been difficult for one town to know how another town deals with perhaps the exact same situation. Government associations exist to “share” information. Exact government spending is not a part of that.

Governments are more and more requiring business to be fiscally accountable, yet governments are hardly open with budget data.

Why doesn’t government already do this?

It would make more sense for every local government to post fiscal data online at the level of detail spelled out here. Every penny raised and spent each year. Simply, they don’t. Furthermore, to have every government provide detailed budget data in the same way would probably be impossible. Finally, it would be an added expense to governments. To have each government do this work on their own without coordination would end up costing far greater than a private sector organization doing the work.

We’ve highlighted how large and economically dominant local government is. Government isn’t shrinking. How do we get a better handle on it?

We need more information about government money - our money. Before anyone can be critical; before anyone can make an intelligent analysis; and not until we have detailed budget information easily available to a large audience, will more people become involved in the governmental/political process by voting more regularly or running for office themselves.

We shouldn’t confuse the work of FAIR Government with the stated benefits that will derive from this work.

FAIR Government began in earnest in November 2004. There is already template data online at www.fair-government.org. The effort to build online data, and build financial support, is now underway.