TALLAHASSEE --
Florida’s new legislative leadership team and the 44 new legislators who took the oath of office in Tallahassee last Tuesday pledged to keep close tabs on the state budget and weed out waste in government contracts.
"Let’s make sure we’re getting value received and the best price," said Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, shortly after being sworn in as the Senate’s new president.
But if history is a guide, few will master the task because access to budget information across numerous agency platforms is notoriously complicated and difficult to access.
That could change if a software program quietly developed by a former House budget staffer, licensed by the state Senate under former Senate president Mike Haridopolos, and financed with $5 million of taxpayer dollars, is launched instead of allowed to expire at the end of the year.
Knowledge is power in Tallahassee and the software program, Transparency 2.0, developed and patented by Spider Data Systems, has the power to level the budgetary knowledge game. It also packs another powerful punch: the potential to expose the secrets of government officials and lobbyists who trade in these transactions.
With the click of a mouse, legislators can track how much money lobbyists’ clients pull in from state business, and which items are tucked into the budget by legislative leaders behind closed doors. They can see in real time where every vacant job is kept, where 496 sole source contracts exist, and which contracts are automatically renewed.
The program easily cross-references budgetary, accounting, contracting and personnel data in real time. It shows how much the state and its contractors spend on travel, and on office supplies and which companies received favorable terms with one agency and less favorable terms with another. And, if the governor’s office puts it online as part of the requirements of a new transparency law, the public could access the information too.
But the state contract with Spider Data Systems is scheduled to expire Dec. 31 without the program ever being launched. The deadline comes even though $4.5 million of taxpayer money was spent on it, and Haridopolos, Gov. Rick Scott and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater each promised a more open budgeting and contracting process.
“It sounds like an orphan nobody wants,’’ Gaetz told the Herald/Times. He and three other senators were given a 40-minute demonstration of a beta tested version of Transparency 2.0 in September 2011, before all the Florida data was loaded into the system. Gaetz concluded: “the price was extraordinary and the product was underwhelming.”
Dan Krassner, director of Integrity Florida, a consumer watchdog organization, believes state officials owe it to the public to launch the web-based program.
“If $5 million of taxpayer money has been invested in a budget-tracking website, then it should see the light of day,’’ said Krassner, who has not seen the program in operation. “Budget tracking tools like this should be used by policy makers to eliminate wasteful spending. Disclosure is the key to accountability.”
Turf battles and distrust over the way Spider Data’s no-bid contract was handled by Steve MacNamara, the former chief of staff to Scott and Haridopolos, have muddied its acceptance by current legislative leaders.
Legislative leaders are ready to shelve a $5 million budget-tracking program
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Legislative leaders are ready to shelve a $5 million budget-tracking program
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Legislative leaders are ready to shelve a $5 million budget-tracking program
