Auditor of Public Accounts; duties, standard vendor accounting information to include certain info. (SB936)
Introduced By
Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R-Fairfax) with support from 6 copatrons, whose average partisan position is:
Those copatrons are Del. Ben Cline (R-Amherst), Del. Jeff Frederick (R-Woodbridge), Del. John O'Bannon (R-Richmond), Sen. Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax), Sen. Ralph Smith (R-Roanoke), Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel (R-Winchester)
Progress
✓ |
Introduced |
✓ |
Passed Committee |
✓ |
Passed House |
✓ |
Passed Senate |
✓ |
Signed by Governor |
☐ |
Became Law |
Description
Secretary of Technology; Virginia Enterprise Applications Program; searchable database website of state budget expenditures and revenues. Provides for the Virginia Enterprise Applications Program (VEAP) within the Office of the Secretary of Technology to create and maintain a searchable database website containing information on state revenues, appropriations, and expenditures. Under the bill, the Director of VEAP shall develop a pilot searchable database website available for public use no later than July 1, 2010. Beginning in July 2011, the searchable database website shall be updated for (i) fiscal years that ended prior to July 1, 2009, and (ii) for future fiscal years not later than 60 days following the close of the fiscal year. The Director of VEAP, the Auditor of Public Accounts and the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission shall work together to coordinate efforts in obtaining, summarizing, and compiling information in order to avoid duplication of efforts. The website shall be made available in a format designed to encourage the greatest amount of use by the general public. The website shall provide access to all levels of budget spending in state government. Read the Bill »
Outcome
History
Date | Action |
---|---|
01/06/2009 | Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/14/09 092360216 |
01/06/2009 | Referred to Committee on General Laws and Technology |
01/21/2009 | Impact statement from DPB (SB936) |
02/04/2009 | Reported from General Laws and Technology with substitute (15-Y 0-N) (see vote tally) |
02/04/2009 | Committee substitute printed 092411332-S1 |
02/04/2009 | Rereferred to Finance |
02/05/2009 | Reported from Finance (15-Y 0-N) (see vote tally) |
02/09/2009 | Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N) (see vote tally) |
02/10/2009 | Read second time |
02/10/2009 | Reading of substitute waived |
02/10/2009 | Committee substitute agreed to 092411332-S1 |
02/10/2009 | Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute SB936S1 |
02/10/2009 | Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N) (see vote tally) |
02/10/2009 | Passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) (see vote tally) |
02/13/2009 | Placed on Calendar |
02/13/2009 | Read first time |
02/13/2009 | Referred to Committee on Science and Technology |
02/17/2009 | Impact statement from DPB (SB936S1) |
02/18/2009 | Committee substitute printed 092435216-H1 |
02/18/2009 | Reported from Science and Technology with substitute (21-Y 0-N) (see vote tally) |
02/18/2009 | Referred to Committee on Appropriations |
02/19/2009 | Assigned App. sub: Technology Oversight & Government Activities (Landes) |
02/19/2009 | Impact statement from DPB (SB936S1) |
02/19/2009 | Subcommittee recommends reporting |
02/23/2009 | Reported from Appropriations (24-Y 0-N) (see vote tally) |
02/24/2009 | Read second time |
02/25/2009 | Read third time |
02/25/2009 | Committee substitute agreed to 092435216-H1 |
02/25/2009 | Engrossed by House - committee substitute SB936H1 |
02/25/2009 | Passed House with substitute BLOCK VOTE (100-Y 0-N) |
02/25/2009 | VOTE: BLOCK VOTE PASSAGE (100-Y 0-N) (see vote tally) |
02/26/2009 | Impact statement from DPB (SB936H1) |
02/26/2009 | House substitute agreed to by Senate (38-Y 0-N) (see vote tally) |
02/26/2009 | Title replaced 092435216-H1 |
03/09/2009 | Enrolled |
03/09/2009 | Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB936ER) |
03/09/2009 | Signed by President |
03/10/2009 | Impact statement from DPB (SB936ER) |
03/11/2009 | Signed by Speaker |
03/30/2009 | G Approved by Governor-Chapter 758 (effective 7/1/09) |
03/30/2009 | G Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0758) |
Comments
Yes.
Now -let's get to a zero-balance budget..each and every state agency must start at zero and account for each dollar they are requesting BEFORE obtaining any funding....anybody find that $28 million moved out of DCSE's accounts to another agency (unknown)???
This bill is essential for opening up the budget and removing the mystery surrounding the budget process.
We have a right to know where and why our tax money is being spent...and the state has an obligation to give us that information in the most effective (and searchable!) format possible.
If we now have recorded House sub-committee votes, why not go all the way and put the budget online? Transparency now!
"Information is the currency of democracy."
- Thomas Jefferson
Commonwealth Data Point puts lots of budget information online, but the state actively blocks it from outside search engines and it places none of the information there in context (X vendor was paid Y amount on January 1...but what was purchased, by whom, for what purpose isn't there).
This would allow folks to see all of that and be searchable at the same time. Some states have used private vendors to crunch the data, saving on costs, and even the federal government makes some software available for free that does the same thing.
If this activity can be outsourced, great, let's do it and do it now. The first hurdle to clear is gaining access to the data, which right now resides in the hands of a very small group of people (who prefer to keep it that way).
It's not on the docket yet...curious, indeed.
My only concern about this bill is that it doesn't go far enough. It's nice to store data on a website, but that doesn't necessarily make it useful. Witness the General Assembly's website. All of the data is there...but it's organized in such a fashion as to make it enormously difficult for citizens to use. Luckily, the technical staff at the legislature understands the limitations of their site, and provides to third parties the raw, unfiltered data that powers the site. That's how Richmond Sunlight exists, and where the data comes from.
Those of us who believe that a) competition is healthy and b) the private sector is often capable of doing better work than the public sector would likely agree that it's important that budget data not just exist on a website, but that the raw data be available in its entirety for anybody to download and utilize. That might be in XML, CSV, YAML, or any other standardized, open source markup language.