Wayne Hoffman, the unusually high-profile spokesman for former Representative Bill Sali, has launched a new effort, the Idaho Freedom Foundation, self-described as “the state’s only think tank dedicated to finding free-market solutions to the challenges facing our state.”

Remarkably, it may more or less be, if you parse carefully. There’s been a long string of pro-free market think tanks (bear in mind, that’s a term of art) in Idaho over the years. Former Idahoan Laird Maxwell contributed a bunch all by himself (Idahoans for Tax Reform, This House is My Home, among other efforts). More currently, there’s even the Free Market Duck, although you may have some difficulty describing exactly what that is. There are also no lack of organizations from outside the state with national outreach including the Free Market Foundation of Plano, Texas, “dedicated to protecting freedoms and strengthening families in Texas and nationwide.”

Ever since the days (amounting to four decades now) when Ralph Smeed and Steve Symms co-founded the Idaho Compass at Caldwell, and pushed for a chair of capitalism at the University of Idaho, the state has not lacked for free-market advocates and organizations – there’s been quite a crowd of them over the years. If those had consisted only of legislators, that would still be quite a crowd.

A question keeps arising about many of these efforts, though. All or nearly all refer to “free market solutions” to whatever ails you – an established determination. So: If you already know the answer to whatever question may be asked, how much thinking do you really have to do?

We’ll credit Hoffman with taking as his initial shot a run at pushing for transparency in government: “In Texas, the state spent $300,000 developing a transparency Web site, and Comptroller Susan Combs believes the program has saved millions of dollars. Among other things, the effort brought to light unnecessary duplication in contracts and produced cheaper ways of meeting government goals. In Idaho, I would imagine that a transparency project could have prevented some agencies from loading up on equipment, bonuses and travel in a mad dash to spend year-end cash, as I witnessed over and over, even in lean years.”

The point and the approach of really transparent government are clearly worthy, though the implementation is neither automatic or simple. To get it done and done right, it may even take a fair amount of actual thought.

Afterthought: By way of transparency, who are the IFF’s benefactors?