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Accountability

To quote Tom Cruise in A Few Good Men, “and the hits just keep on coming.” Hits of voter fraud, that is. Three separate cases in Erie and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania give any self-respecting voter (in Pennsylvania or elsewhere) cause to be concerned.
 

In Erie, former State Representative Linda Bebko-Jones, together with her former chief of staff, sat in her office with the phone book and personal address book and forged signatures on petitions to get herself re-nominated. She dropped her attempt when the charges surfaced, but when a former State Senator found out his 87-year-old mother’s signature was on the petitions—even though she hadn’t signed anything—he pressed the matter until Bebko-Jones was given criminal charges by the state Attorney General in late February.
 

In Philadelphia, similar charges are being leveled against two incumbent House members and one contender for a State Senate seat, who are all accused of employing the exact same method of petition forging as Bebko-Jones. 
 

Am I the only one slightly concerned by the adeptness of these state reps, not to mention their staff members, in signature forging? If we don’t get some accountability in government, be it at the local, state or federal level, we’re only going to continue having skewed elections and disenfranchised voters.

The Ohio presidential primary is on Tuesday, and it promises to carry on the illustrious tradition of Ohio elections:  making a big mess. 

Apparently, an Ohio law allows for Republicans and Independents to vote on a Democrat ballot, while maintaining a closed primary system. Which raises the question—should this sort of thing be allowed, or is it acceptable to change parties for the upcoming primary? And how can we be sure that this entirely excludes open primary voting behavior? 

This is the state where, last May, a man was brought to trial for voting twice in the November 2006 elections in different counties. Mere coincidence? As C.S. Lewis once said, “If you believe that, you’ll believe anything.” 

When I took microeconomics my sophomore year in college, the professor asserted that teachers make bad economists because they live in a world where the concept of limited resources doesn’t exist. The Rhode Island public school system is certainly giving credibility to that theory.

That concept of limited resources is rearing its ugly head in Rhode Island. In protest to prospective budget cuts, public school teachers are acting like the children they instruct every day:  refusing to do anything beyond show up and teach for six hours until the state forks over the money. But some in the state legislature are fighting back by pushing through a constitutional amendment that would financially penalize striking teachers.

The people of Rhode Island do not deserve to be gaffed out of more of their money because the public schools want it. The Rhode Island State Legislature deserves credit for not folding up like a cheap two-dollar suitcase in the face of the educational establishment and defending citizens’ right to their income.

Welcome to beautiful Wisconsin—home of cheese, beer and, hopefully, tighter voting laws.

Three years after an initial probe into the 2004 voting problems in Milwaukee, the police have issued a report recommending the elimination of same-day voter registration and requiring photo ID of voters.

The governor of Wisconsin, Jim Doyle, isn’t a big fan of the recommendations:  “I’m not sure why the Milwaukee Police Department should be the one deciding what the voting policy is of the State of Wisconsin.”

The report attributes blame to poor record keeping and error-prone poll workers. Keep in mind this is the state where, back in January, a Milwaukee man was sentenced with a felony charge for voting while still on probation from a previous felony charge. Such mix-ups would happen less often if states like Milwaukee would just get their voting systems in shape. 

When you think of small-town America, do visions of the friendly mayor and policemen on the Andy Griffith Show typically spring to mind

Not so in Eastover, SC, where a suspended mayor and police chief are standing trial for conspiring to intimidate witnesses in a town council race where absentee ballots changed the results. Six people were running for two positions, and two days after the winners were announced, a review of challenged ballots knocked one of the winners out of the race, with a completely different candidate taking their place by a substantial margin. The court hearing should take about a week to decide. 

While Mayberry only exists in TV Land these days, it’s not too much to expect that our government officials be fair and disinterested when it comes to races for elected offices.   

As John said yesterday, Michigan joins California, New York and Pennsylvania as the only states with full-time legislatures. John also highlighted the work of the Detroit Free Press’ Henry Woloson, who is advocating scaling Michigan’s legislature back to part-time. Woloson isn’t alone—with the passage of a ballot initiative crafted by a father-son pair of attorneys, a part-time Michigan legislature could be a reality. 

Allan and Gregory Schmid are in the process of collecting the nearly 372,000 signatures they need to place an initiative on the November ballot that will limit Michigan's legislative session to no more than half of a year and cut members salaries in half. The aim is to return the body to a group of citizen-legislators who live in their districts instead of representatives who live distantly in the capital.

With salaries of $79,650, Michigan has one of the highest paid legislatures; under the proposed amendment, that salary would be slashed to $40,000 and members would be docked for being absent. The state's governor would also be required to submit a balanced budget on time.

The Schmids are no strangers to Michigan's I&R process; Allan wrote initiatives to cap property taxes that were passed in the 1970s, as well as legislative term limits that were passed in 1992. His son Greg is heading this initiative to allow citizens to take even further control of their state legislature, and he has also written an amendment that would require all tax hikes be brought to a vote.

Civil service was never intended to be a full-time job; indeed, most of the founders never imagined that government would busy itself with so much of the people’s business that legislating required all of the legislator's time. Term limits are one tool to contain this problem; let’s hope this initiative is Michigan's next tool.

The Great and General Court of the Commonwealth (for non-New Englanders out there, that’s the State of Massachusetts) is pushing through a bill that would allow voters to register the day they go to the polls. Asked to talk about his rationale behind the system, Sen. Edward Augustus (D-Worcester) said:

"'It's a recognition that people live very busy and much more mobile lives,' Augustus said. 'The fact is that they didn't realize when registering their kid and closing on their new house that they need to register to vote. This reflects the reality of a lot of citizens.'"

Sen. Augustus is right. The fact that people are too busy to register does reflect the reality of citizens. It reflects the reality that voting is obviously not important enough to them to register before Election Day.

If someone doesn’t care enough about voting to ask, “Hey, while I’m registering my car could I register to vote too?” do we really want them voting? It takes all of 10 minutes to complete a voter registration form. If you’re too busy to do that, chances are you’re also too busy to have any clue what you’re voting for. Do we really want people who have no idea what’s going on in public affairs to choose those who govern those affairs? I, for one, do not. Once again, in an effort to solve a problem, the government is perpetuating it.

Even in Texas, one of the most conservative states in the Union, government still sometimes needs to be slapped around a bit. Fortunately, the Homeschool Legal Defense Association is there to do it.

Last year, a family in compliance with all laws set forth by the El Paso school district faced $7000 in fines for homeschooling their seven children. They also filed charges of truancy against four of the children.

Now, thanks to HSLDA, the charges have been dropped. The McIntyres can continue to educate their children as they see fit and another little piece of educational freedom has been preserved.

Congratulations to the HSLDA for this victory. And to Mrs. McIntyre, for homeschooling all those kids.

The potential disastrous infringement on American civil rights is slowly but surely encroaching. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court dismissed a case brought up by the ACLU concerning President Bush’s approval of government warrantless wiretaps on private phone lines and email accounts. Until now, no judge had ever decided on whether or not such a practice was acceptable in the eyes of justice. Now the silence is deafeningly decisive.

Driving and Voting—two things that Grandma should reconsider when she gets too old to do either. According to the Florida-Times Union, a nursing home assistant has been fined for helping residents with no ID cast votes in recent elections. She admits to filling out patient’s absentee ballots for them and completing paperwork for patients to register to vote. If convicted for trying to sway election results, her offense could count as a felony. However, she maintains that she was “trying to be helpful” by assisting the aged residents, most of whom do not even follow political current events.

Just like the question of when people are too old to safely drive a car, the question of when people are too old to perform the necessary motions of voting needs to be addressed. If you cannot fill out your ballot or voter registration form without help, the honesty of elections is called into question. Senior citizens who know they cannot vote on their own should gracefully bow out of the voting process before allowing meddling nurses or any other such person to become involved. 

As the primary season rolls along, so do the voter fraud incidents. Most recently, in the New York City Democrat primary, it was discovered that votes originally intended for Barack Obama were instead being counted as votes for Hillary Clinton. The extent of this voter fraud was discovered when, in traditionally black voting districts such as Harlem, Obama pulled in next to no votes, and a recount was demanded. 

Before the recount, Harlem’s voting breakdown was 141-0 in favor of Senator Clinton. However, after the recount, the results were estimated at 261-136, still in favor of Clinton, but giving Obama’s vote count a significant boost. As yet, the exact estimates cannot be confirmed, but a ballot-by-ballot canvassing of the voting machines is ongoing.

Incidents like these show the necessity of an accountable, more honestly run voting system, with reliable voting methods in place. 

This is further proof (where none is needed) that Thomas Paine was right: “Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” For the people of Louisiana, still reeling after Hurricane Katrina nearly three years ago, the necessary evil is becoming darn close to intolerable.

Apparently the trailers that FEMA supplied in the hurricane’s wake, which are still serving as home for over 100,000 New Orleansites, have abnormally high levels of formaldehyde. The CDC has urged all residents to evacuate before summer, when higher temperatures will release higher levels of the harmful gas.

If I were a resident of New Orleans, I’d be drawing up a Declaration of Independence from FEMA. When Katrina first hit, FEMA couldn’t get to the city in time. Over the last two years, they’ve continued to trip over themselves and let the people down. Now, they have to leave their homes (such as it is) because their trailers are leaking formaldehyde. Tell me again why they should continue taking handouts from these people?

It continues to amaze me that as much as government continues to fail us, we still rely on it in times when failure is not an option. Let the debacle that is post-Katrina life in New Orleans bear witness to this, and cause all Americans to think twice before we want to run to the government.

On Wednesday I wrote about illegal "Beltline" funding in Atlanta. Today, I examine some additional ramifications of the GA Supreme Court's ruling.

Like Chicago has its "TIFs", Atlanta and surrounding cities have "TADs": Tax Allocation Districts. These TADs have been used to divert revenues from property taxes to other government projects, which the GA Supreme Court found to be illegal in a ruling earlier this week.

Well, the latest casualty--in what's sure to be a string--of this ruling is a fiber-optics plant in Gwinnett County, just outside of Atlanta.

The proposed $2 billion redevelopment of the OFS Brightwave fiber-optics plant at Jimmy Carter Boulevard and I-85 is "on hold" in light of Monday's ruling, said Michael Sullivan, the attorney for developers Mallory & Evans.

The court found that property tax revenues can only be used for educational purposes. At a time when more and more money is being promised for schools--which means higher and higher taxes for Georgians--this money should go where it is intended. 

Such districts divert property tax revenues that would otherwise go to schools and the county budget and place them in a special fund used to pay for public improvements such as streets and sewers. But the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that school funds can't be used for noneducational purposes, immediately cutting in half the amount of revenue available to tax allocation districts.

Kudos, again, to the GA Supreme Court. Until the law is changed--and I certainly hope it isn't considering all of the unaccountability and corruption with Chicago's TIF districts--property tax revenues must go to the government school system.

On a separate note, this will be my last blog entry on "Tea Party." It's been a blast sharing my thoughts with you over this past year, and I hope that you'll continue coming back to this and other Sam Adams Alliance blogs for the latest goings-on in this great--but sometimes ridiculous--country of ours. I know I will.

For Liberty! 

The Senate voted on Tuesday to allow legal protection to telecommunications companies that cooperate with the government’s covert wiretapping program as a part of terrorist surveillance. The bill now has to go to the House, which is hoping to limit the immunity that telecoms would receive. President Bush threatens a veto if the bill is not the same as the one passed by the Senate.

Terrorism is a valid threat and requires strict measures of defense, but how far are we willing to go in passing law-bending measures in the name of national defense? Currently, the government’s wiretapping program is warrantless, something that should cause Americans to see red flags as opposed to red, white and blue ones.

We need to contact our Representatives, telling them to hang up on this bill before the government eavesdrops on any more private conversations.

Like the law says, property tax money can only be used to pay for schools. Who'd-a thunk it?

Some folks in my hometown of Atlanta have had the bright idea to build a "beltline" of light rail and parks within the city. The plans look very nice, and I can see the appeal for hikers, bikers, strollers, etc. But the problem is determining who is going to pay for this extravagant new expansion of government, and supporters are having a difficult time jiving their plans with the law.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:  

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the city could not use school property taxes for the Beltline, a potentially major blow to the project. Beltline supporters expected to use about $850 million in future school property taxes on the Beltline during the next 25 years. The project is expected to cost about $2.8 billion to complete. 

Dismissing, for a moment, the high cost of government-run schools and the high property taxes that it necessitates, I think that this is a very fine ruling, and a victory for the rule of law over the rule of men.

The court's decision is a victory for Buckhead lawyer John Woodham, who in 2006 filed a lawsuit claiming the Beltline's funding mechanism was illegal. He argued that the state constitution explicitly forbade school taxes from being used for non-educational purposes. 

In this age of personalized media, we often expect small blogs and individual writers to be our government watchdogs. But that doesn’t mean “old” media can’t do a fine job, as well.

Over the past month in Detroit, the scandal surrounding Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has evolved (or disintegrated, depending on your position) into a soap opera of sex, lies and… text messages.

Briefly:  in October 2007, the city paid $8.4 million to three former Detroit police officers whom the mayor had fired for investigating his missteps. The mayor agreed to the settlement suspiciously fast—reportedly because of the existence of a confidentiality agreement, which all parties denied.

Since this is scandal, you know what happens next:  there was a confidentiality agreement, and it contained saucy text messages between Kilpatrick and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty.

But who was it that dug up the dirt on this sensational story? The Detroit Free Press, which gave a comprehensive report on January 23. The Detroit News followed up soon after.

These two papers used tools and tactics available to all of us:  Freedom of Information Act requests (FOIA), up-to-date and incisive writing, and hard nosed, unflappable persistence.

It’s a good example for anyone who wants to hold government accountable, whether they have a press pass, or just a laptop.

 

Super Tuesday in Southern California saw thousands of registered Republican voters turned away from polling places in San Diego and Los Angeles because they were listed as “non-partisan” voters.
 

Because California’s Republican primary is a closed one, it was commendable that they were taking such precautions (as opposed to the so-called “closed” Florida primary). However, it appears as if the lists of registered Republican voters was tampered with, preventing thousands from casting their vote in the state’s primary.
 

California’s Republican Party is pursuing an investigation of this issue; meanwhile, the media continues reporting that voting “went smoothly.” This from a state where three prominent voter fraud cases have taken place in less than a year, and are just recently nearing a resolution.
 

Let’s hope that the truth comes out, and that these disenfranchised voters can make their voices heard.

When home sales are down what do Chicago politicians plan to do? Raise real estate taxes, of course!

The CTA financial fiasco never seems to end, now with a new tax being considered by the Chicago City Council in order to pay for CTA workers' pension plans. These plans act as nearly a second salary for workers AFTER they retire.

This is why today--right at this moment, in fact--realtors' organizations are holding a news conference at City Hall to protest a 40% increase in real estate transfer taxes. Aldermen are due to vote on the proposal on Wednesday, Feb. 6.

The 15,000-member Chicago Association of REALTORS® vehemently opposes the increase, which will raise transfer taxes on all Chicago-area real estate transactions by 40%, to roughly $10.50 per $1,000. Revenue from the increased tax would be used to fund CTA pension plans, not improve CTA quality or service. “The people of Chicago deserve to know that this tax will not put a new bus on our streets, or a new train on our tracks,” said Hanna. “This is the wrong tax on the wrong people at the wrong time.”

This week, Careerbuilder.com published an article entitled "Earn More Pay Working Fewer Hours."  The article highlights 32 careers that allow one to earn more than the average American income of $37,000 per year, while simultaneously working less than the American average of 40 hours per week.  

A cursory review of the highlighted occupations reveals that half are either government jobs or jobs that are heavily subsidized by government (careerbuilder does not supply this information, but it can be easily deduced from the job titles-- see if you can pinpoint these 16 here).  While an argument could be made that some of these occupations, through educational attainment or otherwise, are entitled to their well-above average hourly rate, at least a few warrant scrutiny, particularly where actual contributions are difficult to measure.

This is particularly true of our public educational system, which houses American's highest, sub-40-hour work-week earners.  University professors average $61 per hour, while enjoying 38 hour work weeks (Law Profs top the list at $66 per hour).  Meanwhile, the average school counselor bring in $29.15 per hour, with school psychologists even higher at $37.64 per hour. 

We all know where the money that pays these high rates comes from, right?  So, are such high hourly rates warranted?  Should these professionals work more hours for their high salaries?  Do we have enough information to answer that question?  Is such information available?  Should it be? 

When I was home for Christmas last month, my parents and I got in a discussion over dinner about the latest shenanigans going on in my hometown. Here’s the situation in a nutshell:  because a few businesses in downtown Schoolcraft are unhappy with the current septic system, the Village Council has proposed putting in a new sewer, which will affect the entire community despite the fact that there isn’t a problem with the septic system, nor a proven need for the community to replace it.

(I realize this sounds like disgusting dinner conversation, but I assure you it was actually more about the politics behind the proposal, instead of about the actual sewer.)

Anyway, in other words, all of Schoolcraft would be forced to bear cost—to the tune of $8 million—of a new sewer simply because a few businesses have an issue with the current septic system.

To make matters worse, the Village Council is not being entirely honest with the community about this proposal and how it will actually impact Schoolcraft citizens. In turn, many ill-informed citizens remain apathetic about the whole situation because they believe it doesn’t really affect them.

The good news is that several citizens are working hard to give the community the facts on the proposal, confront the council members behind the proposal, and raise awareness about what’s going on. One woman, Dee Fitzsimmons, even did extensive research on the proposal and put together a guide to understanding it to help spread the word in the community.

It’s good to see citizens standing up for good government, especially when it’s a topic as unsexy as a sewage proposal.

Stay tuned for updates, and check out our Action Toolkit if you, too, want to get involved in your community but don't know where to begin.

"Citizens should be able to track state spending."  And so writes The Herald, a local Everett, Washington newspaper, on the prospects of more open government in the Evergreen State.

Taxpayer-accountability websites, when organized properly and with effective transparency, can serve as useful tools for citizen involvement.  When the ledgers of government are made viewable to the taxpaying public, wasteful pork barrel spending can be known, scrutinized, and publicized in order to keep their representatives in check.  

According to this morning's article in The Herald, a bill calling for the creation of such a website was killed in the Washington Legislature earlier last year.  Nonetheless, as early as Monday, State Senator Val Stevens will stand up to re-table the proposal. 

Washington legislators should have nothing to hide from the citizen taxpayers.  "How the state spends taxpayers' money is a mysterious and convoluted process to most folks. Lawmakers shouldn't be fearful of shining light on it, even if some warts are exposed. The more open government is, the more effective it's likely to become."  Quite simply, state government cannot expect to be more "effective" while willfully shutting the public out.  The discourse in Olympia concerns the public's own money. 

Voters in Washington should make their views on this clear.  Do not let the Legislature shut out another bill for government accountability in this coming session.  Washingtonians, click here to find seek out your representative and call for open government.

If news about our national debt puts you to sleep, you need to wake up and watch this. You can’t afford to ignore this issue or say that it doesn’t really matter because it doesn’t affect you. These are the facts:  our country is essentially bankrupt, our government hides the truth about our federal finances—and this mess impacts every household in America.

Learn the real story here:

Our friend Sheila Weinberg, founder of the Institute for Truth in Accounting, is concerned about the financial state of our country, too—and she’s working to spread the word about it with the Truth in 2008 campaign. Learn about it here, and help spread the word or join the campaign. Getting out of this financial quagmire “will require bold leadership, citizen engagement, and tough decisions.” Please get involved today.

From tumultuous tundra, to flat farmland, to sluggish swamps, taxpayers across the US have reason to celebrate this New Year!

Cheers to Alaskan State Senator Bill Wielechowski who has introduced the "Alaska Open Government Act". If passed, concerned citizens will be able to keep their government accountable with the click of a mouse; the bill would establish a comprehensive website on state expenditures.

Cheers to Ohio State Auditor Mary Taylor and Attorney General Marc Dann who have published and released a resource manual to the citizens of Ohio regarding public records and open meeting laws. In the words of Attorney General Marc Dann, "I firmly believe that government at all levels should be transparent and accessible...transparency and accountability increase the public's trust and confidence in the institutions that serve them".

Cheers to the voters of Louisiana who have elected Bobby Jindal for governor - a staunch supporter for transparency and accountability. Governor Jindal plans to issue an executive order to post the state's expenses online. Sadly, with all the financial debacles during Hurricane Katrina at the local and state level such measures are well overdue - better late than never.

Each day, more and more "Modern-Day Sam" activists and politicians are advocating and fighting for a more open government, and their message is spreading like wildfire! Last year, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Minnesota began posting their state expenditures online, and the governors of Missouri and South Carolina issued executive orders for expenditure transparency. 2007 will continue to serve as a testament to a concerned citizenry as 13 states are now considering taxpayer transparency acts.

And when those local politicians like State Senator Bill Wielechowski reach the federal level, they take their beliefs and passion of a government that serves and get results like Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT). Faced with strong opposition from spend-happy politicians like Senator Ted Stevens (R-AL) and Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), these two worked tirelessly for the successful passage of the OPEN Act, which strengthened the FOIA and allowed for federal posting of expenditures online. Check it out!

President Reagan made that a household phrase during the closing years of the Cold War, and we should continue to live by it today and not just assume that our politicians will be good stewards of our money.

Byron Schlomach at the Goldwater Institute has written a short essay that gives the example of a city in Arizona where an investigation turned up some shananagins:

Surely, had Avondale’s city fathers known that taxpayers would be looking over their shoulders, they would have been more circumspect in some of their spending. In an investigative news report, they were caught wining and dining wealthy pro sports interests with $100 bottles of wine. Taxpayers footed that bill and another for a visit to a nail salon. 

"Doveryai, no proveryai." That's how the Russians say it. 

If only we could say it a bit more often over here.

I arrived back home on Monday, boarded a bus, and what did I hear? The same message playing over the speakers as a couple of months ago, asking me to contact my state legislators to get them to give more money to the CTA, Chicago's transit system.

Yes, there's a problem with this: It's called taxpayer-funded lobbying, which, as Sarah so aptly described in this SamTV report, is when government agencies use OUR money to ask us to put pressure on our politicians for them to spend more of OUR money.

Not only have we come up with some ideas on how to fix the CTA's current situation (which they got into because of poor planning and management, mind you), but so have our friends at the Illinois Policy Institute.

They've issued a report on what the CTA could do if its leaders just had enough political willpower:

For over 28 years the CTA (and the larger RTA system) has been asking for taxpayer-funded bailouts while it puts off necessary reforms that would reduce or eliminate the need for such bailouts.  While the CTA has been adopting a number of meaningful reforms, they do not sufficiently fix the root causes of the CTA financial crisis that have been repeated year after year.

Some of IPI's suggestions include:

• Adjust fares to inflation to an average of $1.50 per rider from the current $.96 per rider. This will yield $267 million in increased revenues immediately.  This assumes no fall off in ridership since we know that pricing is not the primary reason for ridership declines.  Unlike tax increases, which do change taxpayer behavior, fare increases will do little to change rider behavior.  However, operational and productivity improvements will convince former riders to return and new riders to give the CTA a trial.
  
• Implement real competitive contracting.  The CTA only tenders a fraction of its spending via competitive contracting (2.8%) while the average transit agency tenders 40%.  Further, the average agency saves 40% in spending when it does competitive contracting while the CTA is saving only 20% (thus the need for transparency).  Just getting to the average would save the CTA $173 million annually.(8)
• Be transparent by opening the books.  The legislature should demand full transparency for all CTA spending.  Every check written, every contractor paid, every consultant hired and all the other details of spending should be open in an online, easily searchable database.  This will create real accountability.

Read the entire report here...and allow me to wish you a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year! Here's to 2008 being a banner year for government transparency and accountability across the country!

I was checking out some YouTube videos on the Lincoln Square eminent domain issue today and found one that demonstrates clearly how many politicians think of their their bosses.

At the rally at Chicago Alderman Schulter's office a few weeks ago--which we documented in this SamTV report--business owners chanted for him to come out and explain his plan to take away 36 businesses. He didn't, and this video explains why and a whole lot more.

Check back tomorrow for a new Common Sense episode in which Paul talks about how the businesses in Lincoln Square are safe...for now.

When it comes to the federal deficit, not many people, it appears. But Sheila Weinberg at the Institute for Truth in Accounting endeavors to educate people about just how much we're in debt.

I was flabergasted when Sheila told me a few weeks ago that the deficit is over $54 trillion, quite a bit above the "official" government estimate of somewhere around $9 trillion.

Sheila and the Institute just set up a new website that provides a single source for information on the "two sets of books" that they find the government keeps, as well as the challenge that they've given to the presidential candidates: to address the problem of our national debt.

Check out truthin2008.org and stay tuned for more from Sheila and her group.

I wrote earlier today about the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, sponsored in part by Tom Coburn. This is great work—but it’s only one part of Coburn’s efforts to make the government more accountable and transparent.

In a Politico piece about Coburn published earlier this week, I learned about how he’s crusading against wasteful government spending and rampant use of earmarks—and if he has a problem with a bill, he’ll kill it. He currently has holds on 95 Congressional bills for a number of different reasons.

Of course, many Senators have less-than-friendly feelings about this “fly-in-the-soup” persona Coburn has taken on, but Coburn is more concerned with changing the culture of the Senate than a popularity contest. Even so, he has gained at least 25 allies in his pursuit of a more responsible government. At any rate, it’s nice to know there are a lonely few legislators we can trust to act in the best interest of American taxpayers.

That’s the title of today’s Washington Examiner editorial, and the news it brings is just as good as it sounds.

Today at 11:30 a.m., USASpending.gov will officially launch. This is the website mandated by the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, and it is a searchable online database of federal spending, making it easier for American citizens to keep track of how the government is spending their money.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) were co-sponsors of this important bill—but as you can imagine, many other lawmakers were not as pleased with the thought of taxpayers actually knowing how they blow tax dollars on their pet projects. Despite their efforts to block this important measure, however, President Bush signed FFATA into law—and today is the beginning of a new era of government accountability and transparency.

Read the editorial here, and be sure to take advantage of this important website. It’s your money—you deserve to know where it’s going.

Upset about out-of-control spending, Michigan voters plan to bring a truckload of coal to the naughty politicians in Lansing.

Here's the scoop from today's e-mail from Leon Drolet and the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance:

Members of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance (you and your family and friends) are invited to join a coal-ition of business and citizen associations who will present gifts of coal to the naughty politicians, and a "thank you" Christmas card to good politicians. The event will take place this Thursday, December 13 at 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM on the Capitol Building steps in Lansing. 

It’s bad enough that elected officials are out of touch with citizens—it’s even worse that, in Pennsylvania, they’re using taxpayer funds to conduct partisan polling to find out what the public thinks.

Read about it here.

After reading last week's Wall Street Journal editorial that slammed the indictments of Paul Jacob and the "Oklahoma Three," the politically-motivated OK attorney general Drew Edmondson wrote a letter to the editor defending his actions, including his most recent blunder.

Blunder no. 1: Indicting three people because he disagreed with their politics, disregarding all judicial precedent on initiative petition signature-gathering.

Blunder no. 2: Having to revoke his grand jury indictment of the Oklahoma Three because it had a legal flaw having to do with multi-county grand juries. Edmondson, the top government lawyer in the state of Oklahoma, apparently doesn't know how to file an indictment correctly.

It strikes me, then, that his letter to the WSJ (PDF) cites the grand jury indictment as proof that the OK 3 conspired to break the law:

The signature gatherers Carpenter, Jacob and Johnson brought into Oklahoma had no intent to live here. They came only to do a job and then move on. They were not residents. Oklahoma law requires signature gatherers to be residents, and a grand jury that reviewed the evidence found Carpenter, Jacob and Johnson “knowingly, willfully, fraudulently and feloniously” violated that law.

No matter that one of the petition gatherers lived in Oklahoma for almost a year following the petition drive. Does a resident have to pledge to live in Oklahoma forever in order to be able to gather signatures? And no matter that this exact grand jury indictment has been scrapped...prior to Edmondson's WSJ letter.

Drew Edmondon's original indictment against Paul, Susan Johnson and Rick Carpenter was flawed and now he's planning to indict them again from his office, leaving out the whole grand jury thing this time.

So no, Mr. Edmondson, the indictment of the OK 3 was not "OK." It was wrong according to principle, law and judicial process.

Please don't embarrass yourself or your office any further. 

It sounds like a case of amnesia has swept over the entire San Diego School Board. During last night's meeting they asked such probing questions as, "Who are we?" and "What are we doing?"

I'm not making this up. The Voice of San Diego reports that the school board is really confused about its purpose. 

"Who can tell me what the mission is of the San Diego Unified School District?" asked Bill Attea, the headhunter hired to find San Diego's next superintendent.

San Diego's school board fell silent, like a roomful of stumped students.

Hmmmmm...that inspires confidence.

After some debate and squabbles, the board came up with these top goals:

Creating a plan to reach low-performing students in early grades and throughout their school careers. A balanced budget that an ordinary person can understand. Effective, regular communication between the school board and the superintendent. Ongoing assessment of student achievement. And a long-term strategic plan that reaches beyond the short-term goals.

I quite like the idea about an understandable balanced budget, but with the confusion apparent among the members, I think that they have bigger things to work out before tackling the really complicated stuff.

When the citizens limit property taxes against the wishes of the politicians, big-government types say that the citizens didn't know what they voted for. Don't believe me? Look at what's happening today in Washington State.

Dan Wood of the Washington State Farm Bureau sent a message this weekend that calls on on Washington State voters to contact their politicians and tell them that a 1% limit on property tax increases is the law, and that they'll be betraying the will of the people if they decide to raise taxes any higher this year. Voters approved a law that would have limited collections of property taxes to 1% year-over-year, plus that which would be collected from new construction.

Please act immediately to let them know that taxing and spending are out of control and that they need to listen!
 
Go to the Washington Farm Bureau Legislative Action Center at http://capwiz.com/wsfb to send the message.  There, you can easily locate your legislators and send a message directly to them and the governor.
 
Let the politicians know you’re watching -- and that 1% means 1%.
 
Tell them to restore the limits on taxes that the voters approved.

I wrote a few weeks ago about a new kind of double-dipping that Michigan public schools have been involved in, and now it looks like they’re not the only ones.

In Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported on the practice of lawmakers taking per diem expense money from taxpayers on the days they were doing campaign business—and therefore, taking money from their campaign funds as well. Otherwise known as double-dipping.

Read the whole report here.

Sarah said it well in her SamTV report on the Chicago Transit Authority a few weeks ago: "Taxpayer-funded lobbying is when your taxes are used to try to make it so that you have to pay more taxes." Now, a coalition of groups in California are working to put an end to the practice there.

I got an e-mail today from the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights in which they announced their partnership with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and the National Taxpayer Limitation Committee in order to launch the "Taxpayer Protection Act of 2008." 

Flashreport.org describes it like this:

"...a ballot measure that strengthens existing laws that prohibit the use of taxpayer dollars for political activity by making it illegal for taxpayer financed organizations, such as the League of California Cities, the California State Association of Counties and the California Redevelopment Association to finance their political activities through anonymous campaign accounts."

Sounds good to me. No, not just good...Grrrrrrrrreat! 

The New York City Council recently voted to ban taxpayer-funded lobbying. This is good news, of course, but be aware that this decision came on the heels of a report released by the Citizens Union, proving that the City Council has spent $1 million on taxpayer-funded lobbying in the last five years.

Nice work saving face, guys.

At any rate, kudos to the Citizens Union, a group dedicated to engaging New Yorkers to reform government—and they’ve been doing it for 110 years. Their website states, “For more than a century, Citizens Union has worked to ensure local and state government values its citizens, addresses critical issues, and operates in a fair, open, and fiscally sound manner.”

Visit their website to learn more about how they’re working for better government in New York.

It’s a tough day for Illinois politicians.

As of 5 p.m. tonight, former Illinois Governor George Ryan will be a resident of the federal correction center in Oxford, Wisconsin, where he will serve a 6 ½ year sentence for government corruption.

Ryan was convicted of passing off lucrative state contracts to friends, using state funds and employees to run his personal campaigns, and stopping an investigation of bribes paid for truck driver’s licenses.

He still vows his innocence, however, and will be taking the case to the Supreme Court. Read more here.

According to a recent poll conducted by Glengariff Group of Chicago, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich should watch out:  more than 50 percent of voters would recall him if they had the chance.

The poll also revealed that 65 percent of voters favor a constitutional amendment giving them the ability to recall elected officials—there is currently no recall in Illinois.

I can’t say I’m surprised. Citizens can only take so much before politicians’ tax-and-spend philosophy pushes them to the brink. That time has come.

It's not the most publicized Election Day ever, but there are many important ballot initiatives going to the voters today that will really matter in the fight for accountable government.

Our friends at the National Taxpayers Union have made a list of initiatives and what they will do in the short and long term. They include:

Utah: Referendum 1 will permit voters to decide final enactment of a law that creates "vouchers" of up to $3,000 that parents could use to enroll their children in private schools. The amount would drop to $500 for upper-income households. The Utah public school systems, which spend more than $7,000 per pupil, would receive limited-duration partial funding for each student who transfers to a private institution.

Washington: Initiative 960 would clarify and strengthen the state's recently abused taxpayer protection law that requires a two-thirds "supermajority" of the Legislature or voter approval for most tax increases. The proposal would also require legislative approval (as opposed to administrative imposition) of fee increases. I-960 is sponsored by Tim Eyman, Mike Fagan, Jack Fagan, and the group Voters Want More Choices, who have led several tax limitation measures to victory.

Check out the entire list, and don't forget to vote. And--full disclosure--the Sam Adams Alliance supported the I-960 campaign in Washington.

In a bad move that only enables the "wolf-crying" that the Chicago Transit Authority has been engaged in, IL Governor Rod Blagojevich bailed the CTA out for two more months.

The governor issued a $27 million grant today that doesn't solve the problem, and delays either drastic tax increases or service cuts. The CTA has mismanaged its budget--unlike the other government-operated service called the Metra, which serves the suburbs--and now wants taxpayers to dig deeper into their pockets to pay for its waste.

Check out Sarah in our SamTV report below to see what's going on...

We need better decision-makers who can make better choices on how to spend our money. As an example of waste, consider massive sports stadium subsidies, which don't rank at all on my government priority list.

Andrew Moylan of the National Taxpayers Union--a group that I'm a big fan of--just released a report on the growing finanical burden placed on taxpayers due to rising subsidies for sports stadiums. This at a time when governments everywhere and at all levels are claiming budget crises and proposing tax increases.

Here's taste of the hard truth:

The sweeter the subsidy, the more problematic the price tag. Moylan's research demonstrates that as the taxpayers' tab increases, so does the total stadium construction cost. Stadiums that were built with 50 percent or more in taxpayer subsidies were $65 million more expensive on average than those built with less than 50 percent in subsidies. The reason? Not surprisingly, private financiers demand more fiscal accountability with their own money than big-government bureaucrats do with other people's tax dollars. 

Read more of Andrew's work here.

So do lower taxes, for that matter, but they aren't the ones on the mind of Maryland's Gov. Martin O'Malley. It's the higher ones that he's eying.

It always surprises me just how frequently politicians say that they're cutting your taxes when, in reality, they're raising them. The manouverings of Maryland's governor are just such a case. He's proposing a 20 percent hike in the general sales tax, as well as a 14 percent hike in the "corporate" income tax. He also wants to double the cigarette tax to $2 per pack. For all of this, Marylanders will get a whopping 0.03 percent reduction in their property taxes (for assessed value).

What really grinds my gears is not only that the increases far outweigh the reductions, but also that the guv is marketing this plan as something good for low and middle income earners, and only a tax hike on high income earners. Excuse me, but doesn't everyone buy things and pay sales tax? And don't more middle class families own stock in corporations than any other demographic? Their 401Ks and IRAs are going to suffer because of this so-called "corporate" income tax increase.

By the way, if this plan is being sold to help low income earners then why is the sales tax being increased while the property tax is being (ever-so-slightly) decreased? Last time I checked the poorer among us didn't own homes, but they sure do buy things from the store.

At least someone is standing up for common sense in Maryland. Here's what Dee Hughes of the Maryland Taxpayers Association said in a Baltimore Sun article:

"Why can't our governor and his gang of spenders cut taxes instead of raising them? The only thing I can think of is the grab for power. They think they are in a gold rush, but the gold isn't in the ground, it is in our wallets."

One other thing: Read the entire article, because some people speculate that the governor's plan is intended to improve his political chances next year. Seems about right to me! 

Happy Halloween from the Sam Adams Alliance!

In the spirit of today’s holiday, I’m posting a press release from Citizens Against Government Waste, detailing a list of those who deserve taxpayer tricks and treats. Here’s a sample:

Trick: To the vampiric Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) for purposefully putting up roadblocks and barriers to hinder earmark accountability and reform. Jack-the-Ripper-Offer’s response to a reporter’s inquiry regarding the difficulty of matching up earmark information in appropriations bills was: “So, you have to work. Tough [expletive].” Rep. Murtha was named CAGW’s May Porker of the Month for howling like a werewolf, throwing a temper tantrum, and threatening his colleagues over a challenge to a $23 million earmark for his pet project, the National Drug Intelligence Center in Johnstown, Pa.

Treat: To Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (R) for announcing the state would drive a stake through the heart of the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” and focus on other transportation priorities. Gov. Palin directed the Alaska Department of Transportation (DOT) to create a list of other uses for the $36 million in federal money that will be freed up with the desertion of the project. The DOT will also work to come up with a more financially responsible solution, such as improved ferry services, to serve the residents of Gravina Island. “Bridge to Nowhere,” RIP.

Read the whole list here.

This just in from Michigan: 

When blogger Dana Potocki listed the State of Michigan on Ebay to draw attention to the problems in the state capitol, she had no idea that her husband, a state government employee, would have his job threatened.

But that's exactly what happened. On Monday, he was called into his supervisor's office and ordered to take the Ebay listing down, and so he complied, even though he had nothing to do with his wife's listing. In the meantime, he was sent home Tuesday suspended with pay pending investigation of misuse of state internet computer system. He expects a letter tomorrow  outlining the charges.

He is expecting to be fired.  

Isn't it crazy that he is being threatened and harrassed by his employers because SHE put up an e-bay listing on HER e-bay account to ... sell the Capitol Dome in Lansing?

Remember the Boston Tea Party? Sam Adams and his fellow taxpayers dumped tea into the harbor to protest "taxation without representation." Chicagoans did something similar yesterday, by pouring bottled water into the river.

The politicians are proposing new taxes, including a 10 cent per bottle water tax, as well as property tax increases. Protesters modeled their protest after the 1773 Boston Tea Party, where patriots threw boxes of tea into Boston Harbor to protest "taxation without representation."

Check out Katie as she interviews protesters in this special SamTV report of the "Chicago Water Party!"

Like most kids with a penchant for begging their parents for cash, I heard the phrase “money doesn’t grow on trees” a fair amount when I was growing up.

It’s a lesson everyone has to learn (which I did)—but unfortunately for Michigan taxpayers, their legislators have yet to master this.

Lawmakers have already increased income taxes and extended the sales tax—despite an already-strangled economy—and now they’re considering raising gas taxes, too.

Michigan legislators need to learn this lesson, and fast:  taxpayers have no more money to give. They’re over-taxed, over-burdened, and struggling to hang on to jobs in a deteriorating business climate continually driving people out-of-state.

Taxpayers are not money trees, and lawmakers must realize this before Michigan is plunged even further into complete financial ruin.

Earlier this month, the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Susan Combs, opened a useful website called "Where the Money Goes," a database outlining the minutiae of all state spending.  Our freedom-loving blogreaders and friends in Texas can access the database here and help keep their state and local agencies taxpayer-accountable. 

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram offers highlights from their own database-digging - including UT Arlington's "hazardous duty pay" ($18,080), chartered aircraft expenditures for the Governor's office ($3,986.75), as well as the "animal budget" of the Texas School for the Deaf in Austin (taxpayers got off easy there - just $4.99). 

Check out where your money's going here.

In Georgia, really not all that much, which is why there's a $16 billion shortfall.

Loyal readers of this blog know that I'm from Georgia, so this story strikes a special chord in me. I think about the dollar amount--$16 billion is big, and could buy lots of hard-working Georgians a lot of food, housing, cars, education, and could create many new jobs, among other things. And then I think about the fact that it's merely the shortfall in the government's pension system for its employees. It's the amount that the government's bank accounts are lacking to pay former state employees for work that they're not doing anymore. 

It's a similar problem to the one that Paul Jacob outlined in The Late Great Social Security System earlier this week.

We can't keep paying people generous pensions without an eye toward the future. And that's common sense.

I just posted about the 12 elected officials in Tennessee who were told that their meetings weren't allowed to be kept secret from the public - and their taxpayer-funded retaliation effort.

Well, Tennessee citizens aren't the only ones standing up against hidden government. In New Hampshire, Granite Grok is going through a very similar case.

Granite Grok also shares this fine quote:

Loren Cochan, director of the Freedom of Information Service Center at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Arlington, Va., said a national trend may be developing at the local level.

"We are seeing that the public is standing up and complaining when they are shut out," he said.

One of my favorite Common Sense columns contrasts "The Two Americas."

Here's a snippet:

"There is the vibrant America . . . and the stagnant one.

There is the America of ever-increasing wealth, innovation, creativity, of a dynamic economy, new jobs, new products and services. Choices galore.

And there is the politician's America: The regulated America, the subsidized America, the earmarked America. The failing America."

Today, Nick over at Right Michigan compares what could be called "The Two Michigans." There are those who solve problems with free market solutions, and those who create more regulations whenever a problem arises. 

After a judge came down on local officials in Knoxville, Tennessee for holding closed-door meetings, these same local officials started trying to get sunshine laws changed. They've been using taxpayer-funded lobbying in an attempt to make it so they can get away with keeping things secretive next time. 

Thanks to Taxing Tennessee for the story and The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government for speaking out against this shady move.

In my post yesterday about Cook County Boa