State budget will not be on new Web siteBy Tara Halbritter, Community News ServicePIERRE (CNS) - An attempt to override Gov. Mike Rounds' veto of House Bill 1233 sailed through the House of Representatives, but couldn't garner enough support in the Senate to obtain the two-thirds majority vote that would have been needed to pass the bill.The bill would have provided for the creation of a Web site to be developed by the S.D. Bureau of Finance and Management.The site would have contained information pertaining to the state's annual expenditures, revenues, bond indebtedness and other fiscal information from 2004 to the current year.The House voted to pass the bill and override the governor's veto, 61-8. The Senate voted, 22-12, and the veto was sustained.If the veto had been overridden, the state would have had until July 1, 2009 to set up the Web site.In the governor's veto message, he said, "Much of what the bill mandates is already on the Internet."State Sen. Jason Gant, R-Sioux Falls, said that while the state's budget is open to the public, accessibility of the information is an issue."Right now, you have to hunt for it," Gant said.He said taxpayers should be able to go to one Web site to access all public information from the state's "checkbook.""I don't think that's too much to ask of our government," Gant said.State Sen. Nancy Turbak Berry, D-Watertown, said the bill is not only good for the public but for the government, too. She said people do a better when they know they are being watched."This is not a partisan issue. This is simply good government," Turbak Berry said. "The executive branch is turning a molehill into a mountain."Rounds said in his veto message, "I want to make it abundantly clear that I support the concept of making the public financial records of state government more accessible to the people of this state. Unfortunately, this bill is an inappropriate vehicle to do so."Rounds and other opponents said the bill is problematic because it does not contain funding to set up the Web site. The executive branch said the creation and implementation of such a site could cost around $600,000, plus approximately $109,000 of ongoing annual expenses to keep the site operating.Rep. Garry Moore, D-Yankton, supported the bill in the House, and he said those numbers don't make sense.Moore said that if much of the information is already online, then it should not cost a substantial amount of money to organize it and put it in on one Web site."This puts transparency in government," Moore said.
