Dear Will,
I applaud your efforts toward transparency re: state contracting. I am a bit concerned, however, re: transparency as understood by the Pioneer Institute. They have offered access to state employee salaries online; while this isn’t that big an issue for me, as I don’t have that high a salary, I do think this is a bit troublesome, as most citizens in the Commonwealth do not have their salaries posted for public display and there is no information re: what responsibilities are associated with these salaries. I worry that taxpayers see this information in isolation of the responsibilities and think state workers, in general, are overpaid. I do think that transparency in general state spending is a good thing. If the state is offering contracts without a general bid, that is potentially a problem and could lead to abuses, which is what I believe you are trying to address.
Thanks, Adele,
Salary information is, indeed, public and you make some fair points about the downside of that. On other hand, if weren’t public, the potential for abuse would be large and the paranoia and suspicion even larger. I do support the availability of this information, even though it has a downside.
All best,
/w.