The creation of the Connecticut Open Data Portal in March of this year marks a very important step toward the goal of open, transparent government. Having access to useful information about what our government is working on and where our tax dollars are being spent leads to better government, greater accountability and an informed public. It should form the basis for better discussions between policy makers and residents, and hopefully spur new ideas and directions for public policy.
The Advisory Panel for this new Portal kicked off with its first meeting this month. I'm excited about their mandate – to not only make state government data easily available to the public, but to ensure the tools for searching and filtering that data are useful and easy to use while still preserving transparency.
I am hopeful that we can make this the first of many steps where we will use technology to improve state government.
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I believe one of the next areas of focus should be in the area of online forms and reporting. We need to make it easier for our small and medium-sized businesses to do business in Connecticut. We can do this by keeping the number of filings and reports to a minimum, and making the process of filing applications and reports straightforward and simple through an online capability.
Online filing makes it easier for both the applicant and the State. Processing times should be faster, accuracy improved, and money saved. Some progress has been made on this in recent years, but there is much more work to be done.
