Sunlight seems to be the trendy buzzword these days. First there was the Sunlight Foundation, which was established in Washington in 2006 to lobby for better government data. Then Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo's office started Project Sunlight to share New York State information online. And last week, City Councilman Bill de Blasio jumped on the solar bandwagon with a proposed legislation to create SunlightNYC, to keep track of stimulus dollars in New York.
The Obama administration has promised transparency in stimulus spending data at Recovery.gov at the federal level (in contrast with the opacity on the TARP bill.)
A nonprofit group, OMB Watch, has compiled a summary of the transparency provisions in the legislation [pdf], and released a copy of a memo from the White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, informing agency head of the transparency efforts. President Obama himself has been a longtime advocate for government transparency, and was one of the backers of the legislation that created USASpending.gov.
But SunlightNYC is part of the growing number of state and local governments who want transparency specific to their areas, preferably with downloadable raw data.
“Although we think the Obama administration has very good intentions, they are going to write some very large checks to some governors and mayors who would not be described as good government types,” said Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, which is part of a watchdog coalition called Coalition for an Accountable Recovery.
More transparency at all levels. Good on Councilman de Blasio.
