Wheatfield on board with FAIR Government

by Larry Austin
Niagara Wheatfield Tribune, October 12, 2006
Grand Island Dispatch, October 13, 2006

Thomas Christy

In releasing his 2007 tentative $10.5 million budget, Town of Wheatfield Supervisor Timothy Demler made the town the first municipality to sign on with the FAIR Government initiative.

FAIR Government, which stands for Fiscal Accountability, Integrity and Responsible Government, is designed to promote transparency in government. Demler introduced its founder, Thomas Christy, at the Wheatfield budget presentation.

Demler said FAIR Government will give town and school taxpayers the opportunity to go on their computer, log on the FAIR Government site "and see where their hard-earned tax dollars are going. What are we spending it on? How much is really going to the children and how much is going into benefits?" Demler asked.

"This is an opportunity for the public to see where their money goes. The government belongs to the public," Demler said.

Christy, who hosts a public affairs television show on local cable television, said FAIR kicked off on June 14, but the concept really began in 1986 when he was working in the legislature in Albany at the time and wondered why he so often lacked data to make important decisions.

"We were chairman of a committee in the Assembly, so you would think we'd get any data we asked for. We couldn't get it," Christy said. "Nobody would give up data. So it started percolating in my mind in '86."

"What happened in Wheatfield last week was that Tim Demler, the supervisor, kind of endorsed the concept by saying, 'Here, I'll give you my budget right now. You don't have to ask me for it,' " Christy said.

"I said Wheatfield is very proud of our fiscal practices, of our investment portfolio, of our tax relief and most importantly the new programs that we offer every year. It is an opportunity, I think, for Wheatfield to set the stage again for being the example and offering our budget to FAIR to the general public to access it and look at it at any time during the course of the year," Demler said.

"When we have several municipalities up, you'll be able to search between municipalities," Christy explained.

"Does Pendleton have a garbage tax? Does Niagara Falls have a garbage tax? What does Niagara Falls pay for fire and police?" Christy asked. "What Tim Demler did last week was say, 'Make me your example. I'll give you everything you want.' "

Christy likens his idea to Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, and said taxpayers should be able to look at a budget line, click on the line, and see where the money comes in and goes out.

"Every penny going into local government and every penny going out of local government should be viewable by the most amount of people for free," said Christy. "You'd read along and see garbage tax, say just as an example, and you'd be able to click on that word and figure out when it started, how much it raises, what it goes toward and all that."

The advent of the Internet allowed Christy to gather and distribute the data at little cost without the constraints of time and space that limit media outlets like television, radio and newspapers.

"Finally the last barrier was removed to store and link and relate all these kinds of ideas," Christy said.

"It sounds dull and dry, but I think you can make it easily understandable so that even kids can follow it," Christy said of the information on the fair-government.org Web site.

The eight counties in Western New York spend $4 billion in government, he said, more than some of the region's largest employers, all without any inter-municipal coordination.

"I don't think the director of the Buffalo budget ever talks to the director of the Wheatfield budget. There's no peer review, there's no peer pressure, there's no, 'Did you do a good job,' because nobody knows if there was a good job or not."