Vote Recommendation | Economic Freedom | Property Rights | Personal Responsibility | Limited Government | Individual Liberty |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Vote Yes; Amend | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Positive | Neutral |
Senate Bill 20 makes an effort to create more accountability and transparency in state agency contracting by requiring a more competitive bidding process, more transparency, and different procedures to identify contracts with risks, during and after the completion of a contract.
These measures have the potential to restrain government growth and government waste by requiring state agencies to be more careful in the way they handle contracts, to prevent conflicts of interest, and to more systematically look for the less costly option for taxpayers.
The provision barring state employees from taking employment with a state and vendor and vice versa for two years following the departure from their position is a healthy, commonsense provision. This helps to secure against potential for corruption and sweetheart deal-making in the contract award process. Still, setting the offense at Class A misdemeanor (which may land a person in jail for up to a year) may not be the right starting point for this offense. The bill would be better if amended to either lower the offense to a Class C or Class B misdemeanor or add language to elevate the threshold for prosecution so that to secure a conviction the prosecutor would have to demonstrate that the defendant knowingly violated the statute.
Ultimately, the measures this bill would implement to protect taxpayers from overpaying for services and to prevent corruption in government are strongly in alignment with the principle of limited government. We support SB 20.