Public attitudes towards transparency in government

By Maria Ortiz Perez
March 17th, 2010

Some interesting poll results that the Association of Government Accountants (AGA) released last month on public attitudes towards transparency*.

Availability of government financial management information continues to be very important to the public.

• Approximately 75% thought it was ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ important across all government levels.
• 51% reported not being satisfied with federal financial management information,  49% with state and 40% with local.
• Availability of government financial management information is most important to older adults (ages 55 and older), more affluent households (100k per year and more), and college graduates.

% of respondents who are getting financial management information from the government’s website

• 16% t for the federal government (though only 11% say they’ve visited recovery.gov.)
• 15% for state government
• 12% for local government

With financial management information from the government at hand

• 71% said they would use this information to influence their vote
• 50% said they would use this information to contact their representative

If you are interested in this topic, Pioneer Institute has created a couple of online tools: for state government data (Massachusetts) visit www.MassOpenBooks.org . If you are interested in getting data from municipalities, then visit www.MassCityStats.org

*The summary information of the poll, taken Dec 2009 can be found here: http://www.agacgfm.org/downloads/SurveyWhitePaper10.pdf