CALPIRG Blog

I thought that since all eyes are on the budget right now an update on the happenings around budget transparency would be appropriate.

The governor announced in a press conference last week that all agencies will post audits of their expenditures above $5K online in PDF format in an attempt to improve government transparency. 

This is movement in the right direction and the governor should be applauded, but California is still way behind the curve on this stuff. At least 19 other states have dedicated websites where citizens can do a Google-like search for government expenditures up and running or soon to be running.  It would basically be like the Leginfo site we all know and love, but for the other kind of bills. 

A better proposal than the Governor’s is currently making its way through the legislature.  AB 400 (deLeon) would create a searchable database within the, currently under construction, FISCal program that would allow the kind of searches mentioned above.  The legislations is still a little limited in scope because it leaves out all the tax exemptions that the state makes, and only includes expenditures up to $10K.  But overall it is a pretty good step.  It gets us closer to what the other states have implemented at least.   

Here is a list of the other states that currently have one of these Google-able databases up and running or will have one soon:
 
•    Arizona
•    Georgia
•    Hawaii
•    Kansas
•    Kentucky
•    Louisiana
•    Maryland
•    Minnesota
•    Mississippi
•    Missouri
•    Nebraska
•    Nevada
•    New York
•    Oklahoma
•    South Carolina
•    Texas
•    Utah
•    Washington