The words transparency and government tend to not normally be affiliated. However, last Monday The News-Banner received an unexpected notification from the office of Governor Sonny Perdue that used the two words in the same statement. In the news release, the governor announced the opening of Open Georgia: Transparency In Government website, to be found at open.georgia.gov. The site will allow Georgians online access to agency expenditures on professional services, employee salaries and travel, state financial reports and program reviews from the two previous years.

“The Open Georgia website makes state government more transparent to its customer, the taxpayer,” Governor Perdue states. “By being willing to further open the halls of government to the public, we give citizens more confidence that their tax dollars are being spent wisely.”

This is a wonderful concept. We (newspaper) are in full support of more openness in government. The state legislature and the governor are to be applauded for their efforts. Maybe now the “taxpayer” can get online and find some answers as to how our state government can better spend tax revenues since Georgia has a projected two billion dollar ($2,000,000,000.00) shortfall in revenue headed its way this year. It is very interesting that our state government now would like to be more transparent with how it is spending state funds. Here’s a question...How do you miss $2,000,000,000.00? It could be time to consider looking for some new bean counters under the Gold Dome.

Keep a watchful eye on this year’s state legislative session. The challenging decisions that our state will have to make could have a tremendous impact on you and this community. The 2009 session started Monday. Issues facing the state legislature include taxes, transportation, health care, education, criminal justice and much more.