Keeping Government Accountable to the People

The American Heritage® Dictionary defines High Road as:

NOUN:  1a. The easiest or surest path or course: the high road to happiness.   b. The most positive, diplomatic, or ethical course.

The American Legislative Issue Campaign Exchange (ALICE) defines High Road as high-wage, low-waste, worker-friendly, publicly-accountable economic development.   Public accountability includes open information, responsible spending, citizen participation, freedom of information, access to the ballot box, campaign finance reform and corporate accountability.

Whether it’s a county in Maine or Mississippi, our mayors, county executives, city council and county board leaders are all struggling with spending decisions. There are over 3000 counties and 20,000 municipalities across the country, and when you add townships, school districts and other special districts, the United States has over 87,000 local units of government.  They're are all spending our tax dollars, and it's up to us -- we, the people -- to ensure our values are represented in the choices they make.

So what values does one find on the high road?

The high road is accountable.  For Democracy to work in local government, citizens must have access to information and be able to participate.  They need to know how our tax dollars are being spent, and that the merit of a good idea will overcome the corporate money behind a bad one.

The high road is efficient.  We're targeting subsidies and tax dollars carefully, instead of wasting precious resources on bad business and sprawl. We're making sure our money isn't wasted on bad jobs and short term gains.

The high road is metropolitan.  We're locating employment and production in cities and inner-ring suburbs where people, skills and infrastructure are already densely packed. This combats poverty by placing jobs closer to low-income people who need them. It also helps the inner city stay vibrant and remain a place where people work as well as live.

The high road promotes quality.   We're emphasizing high-quality, high-wage, high-skill, high value-added jobs over the opposite. These jobs are better for workers, and the firms providing them are more committed to the community, because they’ve spent resources training their high-skill workforce.

The high road is sustainable.  We're thinking about the future, focusing on retention and upgrading, seeking to cooperate instead of compete with neighbors. At its best, it can promote good jobs that will survive the next decade and the next generation.

The box to your right houses the best practices in publicly accountable progressive local policy.  Start the journey.  There is a choice.

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