In the Fall of 2009 and through 2010, I fought to open up the books on House spending and also to open up the bid process for House contracts. House leadership eventually embraced the need for more transparency. In June 2010, we passed legislation to make all state spending available for public review online. Then, in January 2011, we passed new rules opening up House contracts.
Yesterday, the Treasurer and the Governor rolled out the new website that implements the legislation we passed on June 2010. It is called “Massachusetts Open Checkbook” . It looks like a good start. And the Treasurer and Governor are fully in support, so it seems likely to continue to improve.
Click here to see the full history of my work on transparency issues.
The work that the state has done is being well recognized — MassPIRG has ranked us 4th nationally in transparency. Please see this link.