A welcome rush toward transparency

How quickly good ideas spread.

About a month and a half ago, we used this space to congratulate DuPage County Auditor Bob Grogan on his novel approach to transparency in government. Grogan decided to post the county's monthly expenditures online. It was, we noted, "tantamount to opening the county's checkbook for the world to see."

It was a bold idea to embrace democracy. Now, the movement toward transparency in government is spreading like wildfire, and we hope it continues.

We're especially excited about legislation introduced by state Rep. Michael Tryon to do essentially the same thing and more with state government. The Crystal Lake Republican's measure, which was approved unanimously in the Illinois House last year only to be ignored in the Illinois Senate, has been introduced again to establish and maintain a state Web site called the Illinois Accountability Portal that would provide the public with direct access to the state's spending, employees, consultants, tax credits, and license revocations and suspensions.

Tryon says the portal will provide "the public with one-stop shopping as to how taxpayer dollars are used. I firmly believe the Illinois Accountability Portal will reduce the culture of political handouts, pay-to-play politics and pork barrel spending that has tarnished the public's trust in government."

We couldn't agree more and are happy to see that the legislation is back with renewed bipartisan support, including the backing of Democratic state Rep. Jack Franks of Marengo, the measure's chief co-sponsor.

We hope the Illinois Senate, under new leadership this year, will get behind the idea this time.

Thankfully, this measure is only one of several recent signals of the movement toward transparency.

We applaud also Gov. Pat Quinn's directive last week ordering state agencies to fully and quickly respond to the Freedom of Information Act. Quinn intends to limit FOIA exemptions and make more information available online.

We applaud also Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's work to rewrite the Illinois Freedom of Information Act so that local governments throughout the state will be more accountable, honest and accessible to the citizens they represent.

This movement is apparent on the local front. Last week, Phil Walter, a candidate for village president in Arlington Heights, proposed that all municipal bills be posted online, similar to the way Grogan's doing it in DuPage County.

And it's apparent also on the national front, where President Barack Obama has promised to record every expenditure of the economic stimulus package online for the citizenry to monitor at recovery.gov.

This really is a movement that will benefit us all. We heartily endorse it, and encourage every government to get on board.