By Jeff D. Smith III

The Roanoke Times’ Jan.8 editorial “Budget transparency,” which referenced the recent audit by the Virginia Coalition for Open Government assessing the ability of citizens to easily access locality budget data via the Internet, has another component worth considering.

As anyone who has tried to obtain such data understands, a number of local governments have made it convenient for interested parties to do so. But far too many have not. In either case, however, there is still a missing piece in this discussion.

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 Smith is executive vice president of the Virginia Wholesalers and Distributors Association, a statewide business trade association for food, beverage, tobacco and general merchandise distributors supplying Virginia’s retail community since 1934.