Transparency - Sort Of

Here is a Kentucky government web site that offers a glimpse, sort of a looking through the glass darkly view, where your tax dollars are going.

While not as transparent as we would like, the Legislative Research Commission offers some transparency to state government spending. The Government Contract Review Committee shows us who gets some of our tax dollars.

All of the information is on contracts and amendments that have been reviewed and approved by the committee for payment. So we get to see where the money went, not where it’s going.

Here are the bigger ticket items from May 2008:

MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT FOR

16. 0800007172

Health Care Excel Incorporated
2629 Waterfront Parkway
Indianapolis, IN 46214

Auditing - $2,694,084.00

Provide for compliance with the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 including, but not limited to, three year general audits by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), as well as CMS focused reviews, provide technical and educational support to identify fraud, rule out potential erroneous/fraudulent billing through clinical reviews and audits, and identify opportunities for system payment edits and audits.

TRANSPORTATION CABINET

21. 0800007385

JL Lee Engineering LLC
100 North Main Street, Suite 218
Lawrenceburg, KY 40342

Engineering - $2,000,000.00

Provide Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) based site assessments, evaluations, characterizations and remediation plans and control compliance reviews including sampling, reporting, remediation and other environmental concerns.

22. 0800007413

Corradino Group First Trust Center
200 South Fifth Street, Suite 300N
Louisville, KY 40202

Engineering - $2,000,000.00

Provide Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) based site assessments, evaluations, characterizations and remediation plans and control compliance reviews for Kentucky Underground Storage Tank regulations and the Clean Water Act including sampling, reporting, remediation and other environmental concerns.

23. 0800007414

Linebach Funkhouser Incorporated
114 Fairfax Avenue
Louisville, KY 40207

Engineering - $2,000,000.00

Provide Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) based site assessments, evaluations, characterizations and remediation plans and control compliance reviews for Kentucky Underground Storage Tank regulations and the Clean Water Act including sampling, reporting, remediation and other environmental concerns.

Now, true transparency in government would let us see these contracts before they get the legislative rubber stamp.

Also here’s an idea:

Could we cross reference the Contributor Information from the Registry of Election Finance, the Corporate Information from the Secretary of State with the database containing the above information?

Now that would be a fun site.