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Ohio Open Government Site Comes with $2.7 Million Cost

by M.L. Schultze

Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel goes to the Ohio Controlling Board on Monday morning to get the OK for a $2.7 million no-bid contract with a California startup called OpenGov.

Mandel has won praise and bipartisan support for his effort to get cities, schools and other local governments to be transparent about their spending. But he hadn't discussed the cost of the project.

Phineas Baxandall is with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, which advocates for more transparency. He said Ohio has made huge strides in helping people see what their governments spend, but such efforts aren't cheap.

"The good thing with this information is that it already exists" Baxandall said. "Most of it's already on some spreadsheet and just needs to be made public. It's not costless because you want to be careful that you're not giving away somebody's bank account, you're not giving away confidential information about who receives what kind of medicine or where someone in the witness protection program is located."

Baxandall said the open government efforts often pay dividends by encouraging governments to spend more efficiently and collaboratively.