Stimulus Leading to More Open Government

States are reporting an unexpected public benefit from the federal stimulus program: faster, more streamlined reporting of data that is resulting in increased government transparency.

Federal rules required that states electronically file reports on projects funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The first reporting deadline was October 10th, with information fed into the federal information clearinghouse at FederalReporting.gov.

In an article posted to Nextgov, Aliya Sternstein reports that the requirement for transparency in how the funds are spent has led states to develop new systems for quickly gathering and reporting data. The administration, in turn, is developing new systems to make this information publicly available. Sternstein’s article profiles how various departments and agencies in New York state managed the data collection and reporting process.

The Center for Technology in Government (CTG) at the University of Albany is taking a deeper look. CTG is hosting a series of forums for agencies across the state to share best practices on technology-based reporting strategies. The Center plans to put key findings into a white paper available at a later date on CTG’s website.

This is the kind of progress toward achieving the Knight Commission’s fourth recommendation—to require governments at all levels to operate transparently, facilitate easy and low-cost access to public records, and make data available in standardized formats that support productive public use of such data—that ought to drive more sustained efforts to open up government and make public information easily accessible to the public.