Another Word For It Patrick Durusau on Topic Maps and Semantic Diversity

February 21, 2014

Fiscal Year 2015 Budget (US) Open Government?

Filed under: Government,Government Data,Open Data,Open Government — Patrick Durusau @ 11:58 am

Fiscal Year 2015 Budget

From the description:

Each year, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) prepares the President’s proposed Federal Government budget for the upcoming Federal fiscal year, which includes the Administration’s budget priorities and proposed funding.

For Fiscal Year (FY) 2015– which runs from October 1, 2014, through September 30, 2015– OMB has produced the FY 2015 Federal Budget in four print volumes plus an all-in-one CD-ROM:

  1. the main “Budget” document with the Budget Message of the President, information on the President’s priorities and budget overviews by agency, and summary tables;
  2. “Analytical Perspectives” that contains analyses that are designed to highlight specified subject areas;
  3. “Historical Tables” that provides data on budget receipts, outlays, surpluses or deficits, Federal debt over a time period
  4. an “Appendix” with detailed information on individual Federal agency programs and appropriation accounts that constitute the budget.
  5. A CD-ROM version of the Budget is also available which contains all the FY 2015 budget documents in PDF format along with some additional supporting material in spreadsheet format.

You will also want a “Green Book,” the 2014 version carried this description:

Each February when the President releases his proposed Federal Budget for the following year, Treasury releases the General Explanations of the Administration’s Revenue Proposals. Known as the “Green Book” (or Greenbook), the document provides a concise explanation of each of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2014 tax proposals for raising revenue for the Government. This annual document clearly recaps each proposed change, reviewing the provisions in the Current Law, outlining the Administration’s Reasons for Change to the law, and explaining the Proposal for the new law. Ideal for anyone wanting a clear summary of the Administration’s policies and proposed tax law changes.

Did I mention that the four volumes for the budget in print with CD-ROM are $250? And last year the Green Book was $75?

For $325.00, you can have a print and pdf of the Budget plus a print copy of the Green Book.

Questions:

  1. Would machine readable versions of the Budget + Green Book make it easier to explore and compare the information within?
  2. Are PDFs and print volumes what President Obama considers to be “open government?”
  3. Who has the advantage in policy debates, the OMB and Treasury with machine readable versions of these documents or the average citizen who has the PDFs and print?
  4. Do you think OMB and Treasury didn’t get the memo? Open Data Policy-Managing Information as an Asset

Public policy debates cannot be fairly conducted without meaningful access to data on public policy issues.

No Comments

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Powered by WordPress