New Mexico Legislature on Verge of Creating More Open Government?

Believe it or not, the New Mexico Legislature is on the verge of passing some very important — and positive legislation. First, there is SB 159 which has been introduced by Sen. Sander Rue. This bill which would create an online, search able database of government spending, recently passed the Senate 38-0. Hopefully the House will pick up the bill and run with it.
Indeed, the House, led by freshman Rep. Dennis Kintigh, has already passed House Memorial 78 which would study the best way to create an easily accessible, searchable database that displays the state budget and spending for each year; and submit the results by November 1, 2009. This legislation passed the House 48-14 with all the opposition coming from Democrats. Believe it or not, the Texas Comptroller actually did all this voluntarily rather than waiting for the politicians to act.
For an idea of the information that can be made available to taxpayers in these search able online databases, check out the Texas transparency portal.