Trend-Setters

There's a great article on National Review Online today which credits OCPA with helping to start a nationwide trend. Stephen Spruiell writes:

One state-based think tank, the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA), has adopted another national idea to the state level and thus started a trend of its own. Inspired by the work of Sens. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) and Barack Obama (D., Ill.) on the creation of a searchable online database of federal contracts and grants, OCPA began to push the state legislature to do something similar for taxpayers in Oklahoma. Last October, in an op-ed calling for a state-funding website, Coburn and OCPA vice president Brandon Dutcher wrote, “Many taxpayers… may be aware that their tax dollars have paid for things like rooster shows and ghost employees and $100 car washes, but these things are just the tip of the iceberg.”

Since then, the idea has met little resistance from state politicians in either party. On March 1st the state senate unanimously approved the creation of the database, and governor Brad Henry, a Democrat, picked up the idea and included it in his State of the State address this year. The idea is gaining popularity in other states as well. OCPA spokesman Brian Hobbs says, “We pitched the idea at a Center-Right Coalition meeting. It created a buzz there, and word traveled fast.”