Email this page
an effort to create searchable online databases for government expenditures
a tool to highlight the hypocrisy of tax hikers
Constitutional or statutory requirement to rein in growth of revenues end expenditures
a commitment made by elected officials and candidates for elected office never to raise taxes
Raising the bar for tax increases
Requiring a cool-off period for all bills with a fiscal impact
pork-barrel spending - the broken windows of the budget
Recent Related Headlines
After 99 Days, What's a Few More?Monday, October 11, 2010 6:30 PM
Promises, Promises: Sunlight Before Signing Another Campaign Casualty
Monday, September 27, 2010 12:02 PM
Half a Year of Transparency Failures in Review
Thursday, September 23, 2010 9:00 AM
Taxpayers Finally "Celebrate" Cost of Government Day
Thursday, August 19, 2010 2:00 AM
Financial Reform: Transparency by Choice or by Luck?
Friday, June 25, 2010 10:42 AM
Legislative Waiting Period Bill Introduced in Washington State
Friday, January 15, 2010 3:24 PM
CFA Reminds Pelosi - Let Us See the Bill!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009 12:00 PM
Waiting Periods for Fiscal Bills
One way to increase accountability in government finance is to implement waiting periods for all bills with a fiscal impact.
Too often, lawmakers are asked to vote on important legislation – such as the budget – with little or no lead up time to review the final result of negotiations. Spending provisions may be slipped into the legislation at the end of deliberations. Votes are cast before the ink is dry or the copies have cooled off.
Several states have a “cool-off” period for budget votes, but this is a reasonable requirement that should be adopted by the federal governemnt, state governments and local governments for all bills with a fiscal impact.
Ideally, every such bill would have to be published for five days on the Internet, so that taxpayer watchdogs, fiscal analysts, journalists and average taxpayers have an opportunity to review the legislation. Every amendment should set back the clock to require another full five days.
Model Legislation
While the Center for Fiscal Accountability advocates for longer cool-off periods of five full business days, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has adopted state model legislation prohibiting hearings or votes on appropriation and/or revenue related bills until 72 hours after the bill’s public introduction. Votes on amendments to these bills also require a budget cool-off of 24 hours. The bill and respective amendments have to be made publicly available for those periods, which means posting the text on the legislature's website and its publication in a bill report, committee report, and/or conference report. This ALEC model bill can serve as a great starting point for drafting legislation.
A Special Project of
atr.org
atr.org
722 12th Street NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC
202-785-0261
friends@atr.org
