While the new presidential administration is working out the details of another federal stimulus and bailout package, one local county legislator is calling for those details to be made as public as possible.
“The first bailout is a mess,” said Fourth District Legislator David Stott. “No one seems to know what money is going where and who is giving money to who and why.”
For that reason, Stott put a memorializing resolution before the County Legislature at their Feb. 3 meeting calling for the federal government to “implement a system of transparency and accountability for public funds used pursuant to the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.”
The resolution states that the act, as it stands now, “does not currently have adequate mechanisms to assure the public that it will have the necessary transparency and accountability to protect the taxpayers’ money, resulting in widespread confusion and mistrust about how that money is being spent At a minimum, such a system should include methods to ensure that all of the public funds used under this act are accounted for with respect to the private entities who received them, the specific projects and purposes for which such funds were used and the ultimate outcomes from such funds having been used ”
Stott said he wants the second bailout package to be as clearly outlined as possible.
“I’d like to see a line-by-line description of what money is going to who and who’s administrating that money,” he said. “I’d like to see some real accountability here.”
Stott also suggested that the government invest in an easy-to-navigate website that would clearly explain the new bailout and stimulus package and answer people’s questions about the program.
“If you want people to support this, you have to make it so they can understand it,” he said. “The first bailout is so convoluted and there’s so much nepotism involved that no one trusts it. That needs to be fixed. Every aspect of this proposal should be scrutinized and laid out for everyone to see.”
Stott proposed the resolution at the legislature’s Feb. 3 meeting. The results of the vote were not available at press time. If it passed, the resolution would be sent to the president and local Congressional representatives.
Stott said the resolution would convey that the 500,000 residents of Onondaga County want more transparency from their government in terms of the bailout.
“I think we need to send a message that half a million people aren’t happy with the way things have been explained, and something needs to change,” he said. “If they’re going to do this, and it looks like they are, they really have to make it as clear and as simple as possible for people to understand.”