No Taxation without Information

From Sunshine Review

Revision as of 05:43, 16 July 2008 by Leslie Graves (Talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Current revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to: navigation, search

No taxation without information expresses the idea that the business of running the government must be open at all levels to effective public scrutiny.

Advocates of this view believe:

  • Without such openness, citizens can't effectively hold politicians and public officials accountable.
  • Without effective accountability safeguards, the level of waste and fraud at the local, state and federal levels of government is much higher than it would otherwise be.
  • When citizens honor their obligations by paying taxes, but politicans and public officials don't honor their obligations to disclose the people's business to the citizenry in a full, transparency and forthcoming way, a fundamental asymmetry develops that tears at the fabric of the public trust.

The Sam Adams Alliance is launching a No Taxation without Information campaign in July 2008. Components of the campaign include: