The process should be transparent to the citizenry if the advantages of public
input are to accrue. Citizens should understand when in the process public
input will be considered by administrative bodies, and lawmakers and
public bodies need to be transparent in their operations. Transparency is a
critical element of greater involvement. Otenyo and Lind (2004) helpfully
identify five phases of transparency reforms in government: (a) transparency
as representative government (government legitimacy); (b) transparency as
a means of judging the distribution of policy benefits (service delivery);
(c) transparency as a response to maladministration (eradicating corruption);
(d) transparency to enhance accountability (information and decision-making
disclosures); and (e) transparency as open government (technology, electronic democracy, and governance).8 Each aspect links to the process of fiscal
administration for local governments because that process provides the best
opportunity for communicating fiscal results and intentions to the local
citizenry and for receiving communications from the citizenry.
Even when lawmakers are effectively operating as the agents of those
who have elected them, it is critical that the population understand the
fiscal decisions made on their behalf, if for no other reason than to allow
them to make informed choices in the next election. For transparency to
be effective, fiscal decisions—on taxing, spending, and borrowing—need
to be made in an open process, not in closed hearing rooms or so quickly
that there is no opportunity for public scrutiny. And fiscal information
needs to be publicly and freely available to the general public and, most
important, to the media. At the local level, transparency provides the means
of communication between government and citizenry regarding priorities,
plans, decision making, and evaluation of results and, hence, can become an
important foundation for responsive,responsible,and effective public services.
Published budgets that include both plans and results in transparent
language are important for encouraging local citizen input. A provision for
local citizen input is one of the great advantages of making fiscal decisions
at the local level, and transparency is the tool for achieving the advantage
of citizen participation in the fiscal process. How much information is
provided and how usable it is depends on local political will, the cost of
providing information, and higher-tier legal requirements. The last is least
effective because local transparency is seldom an important concern for
higher-tier lawmakers.