The Democrats' great hope for the American economy was the 258-page American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This bill outlined their federal-stimulus package intended to revive the U.S. economy. It called for $275 billion in tax cuts and $550 billion "in thoughtful and carefully targeted priority investments with unprecedented accountability measures built in."

The bill's preamble stated, "The economy is in a crisis not seen since the Great Depression. Credit is frozen, consumer purchasing power is in decline, in the last four months the country has lost two million jobs and we are expected to lose another three million to five million next year." This estimate was low by about seven million Americans.

We now know that the free market place was not "shutting down" as the bill claimed, but trying to free itself from a Zombie Economy imposed upon it by years of pork legislation, wasteful spending, easy credit, and deregulation of Wall Street. A productive economy operating in a free market place will never shut down; it will simply transform itself through a process called Creative Destruction.

We also now realize that the bill's $550 billion investment of taxpayer money was not "thoughtful and carefully targeted."

The bill's only good idea was its pledge of public accountability to anyone with access to a Web browser. "Each contract awarded or grant issued using funds made available in this Act shall be posted on the Internet and linked to the Web site Recovery.gov."

The bill also mandates internal accounting of the effectiveness of stimulus spending and the creation of a seven-member Accountability and Transparency Board.

After eight years of budgetary voodoo, financial slight-of-hand and opaque government, the City of Marietta has a much-touted new mayor. Not since Eric Zeier was recruited to play football at Marietta High has so much excitement been associated with a Marietta personality, but reality will soon return to Marietta government.

New Mayor Steve "Thunder" Tumlin faces two major challenges. One is that state and local government revenues are set to fall over another cliff in 2010. For the last three years Marietta officials have ignored the recession and continued spending tax dollars on failed redevelopment projects, streetscapes and placing overhead utilities underground along the Roswell and Fairground Street Gateways. This year the city will need more than the taxpayer's wallet, the MEAG Trust Fund and the reduced benefits and ignored cost of living increases of their employees to cushion the fall.

The other big challenge facing Tumlin is regaining taxpayer trust for City Hall. After a decade of being ignored, misled and excluded from city governance by City Hall, Tumlin will have to prove himself to Marietta residents. He can make several huge strides in this direction by adopting the only good idea the Obama administration has ever had. Pledge public accountability to every Marietta resident by creating an Accountability and Transparency Board and posting the check registry for each of the city's funds, especially the checking accounts of the Parks Bond, the DMDA hotel/ public works revenue bond, and the Marietta Redevelopment Authority, on the city's Web site. Let's make the publicly owned Web site a tool for transparency, instead of a spin machine and tool to attack the free press and private individuals.

If Tumlin has the fortitude and management skills to implement these two relatively simple items within the next several months, we can all jump on his bandwagon. If not, get ready for a group of private citizens to request and post the city's check register on a private Web site.

Larry Wills is a retired recycling consultant.