The Maryland Public Policy Institute
OP-EDS
FEBRUARY 19, 2010
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A favorite editor loved to say, "If your mother tells you she loves you, check it out." He didn't trust any one source, and neither should state taxpayers when it comes to over $900 million given each year to nonprofit groups and businesses charged with fulfilling the state's business and millions more loaned by state agencies to businesses at favorable rates and often with no consequences for default.
My editor was funny. But there is nothing humorous about the state giving almost $1 billion to various groups every year with no public scrutiny, especially in these economic times. If even 10 percent of that money was being wasted, a low-ball figure given audits of how agencies spend money, redirecting it could have paid for the state Department of Transportation bill so far to clear highways from multiple blizzards this winter.
Legislation passed last year required the Department of Budget and Management by Sept. 1, 2009, to collect reports of state grants from agencies and then build a searchable database for them. Blaming money problems, the agency skipped the database -- and without excuse, did not collect the reports on deadline either. By March 1 it is supposed to post the data in a way that does not cost the agency any money.
That is great news, as is a bill (HB 174) by Delegate Warren Miller, R-Howard County, that would require the state to post information about loans over $25,000 on the Maryland Funding Accountability and Transparency website, at www.spending.dbm.maryland.gov.
The information is important for a number of reasons. First, it would give citizens tools to make more informed decisions about government. It will also allow Marylanders to better hold their government accountable, especially for those who live far from Annapolis. It would help legislators do their jobs more effectively as they would be able to tell whether the money they appropriate is being used wisely and for the purpose intended. And it would make it easier to see if political connections played a role in winning a grant or loan.
As an example of how things work currently, it's almost impossible to find out who receives loans from the Department of Housing and Community Development. The agency will not disclose loan recipients' names or addresses, or whether it has tried to recoup losses from defaulted loans. What is clear is that it routinely gives money to recipients who have no means to pay back taxpayers and to restaurants and bars that would never be able to obtain a bank loan because they are too high-risk. The new law would require that all of the information noted above be made public.
Miller would like state legislation to be an example for counties and local school boards to launch their own sites. Montgomery and Howard counties are two local jurisdictions with county databases in the works.
Sandra Fabry, executive director of the Center for Fiscal Accountability, part of Americans for Tax Reform, says there are no perfect state databases. But the best include salary and benefit information of state employees, debt payments and copies of contracts the state holds with businesses and nonprofits. Maryland, praised for its presentation of how federal stimulus dollars are being used locally, provides none of that information to residents.
As Fabry said, "There is no good reason why the information should not be online in this day and age." And when even the White House posts name and salary information of its employees, it's embarrassing that Maryland is still hiding public information from the people who pay its bills.
Marta Mossburg is a senior fellow at the Maryland Public Policy Institute.
mmossburg@mdpolicy.org
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