Portal:Show Me The Spending
From Sunshine Review
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[edit] Featured article: Stimulus tracking technology the model for government transparency
By Gautham Nagesh
The technology that tracks stimulus investments has successfully delivered a new level of transparency with regard to government spending and will soon be used throughout the government to combat fraud, according to testimony from Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board Chairman Earl Devaney.
In his opening statement for Tuesday's Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management hearing on using technology to transform the government, Devaney said his team has used sophisticated software tools to detect fraud before stimulus funds leaves federal agencies. He said a similar pilot program is now under way for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, and termed the initial results as "very positive."
Read the full article here.
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[edit] States Without Transparency Websites
There are currently 18 states that do not have separate transparency portals providing state spending data. Throughout the month of August Show Me the Spending will highlight each of them. This week we look at three in particular -- Michigan, Wisconsin, and Indiana. .
Below is spending information that each state currently has (or doesn’t have) available online. All the data is in multiple, hard to find locations throughout the site.
Check out last week's states below as well.
[edit] Michigan
Michigan currently does not have a separate spending transparency portal online. Rather, all spending information is available in different areas of the official state website. Users must navigate through multiple separate agency websites for the information they need. Fortunately, the site does have a useful search feature allowing users to search keywords. Overall, Michigan provides a reasonable amount of government spending data for the public to analyze, however because the state lacks a convenient one stop shop for spending information and more user friendly data formats , searching for and reviewing data can be difficult and time consuming.
Expenditures -- Expenditure information is available in the “State Spending and Accountability Information” section of the state government website. The most recent expenditure information provided is from FY 2010 through June. The data is arranged by agency in pie graph format. Within each graph spending is broken down into seven categories - among them are expenditures related to salary (which take up the largest portion of each agency’s budget), travel, information technology, capital acquisitions and rentals. Users can click each section to see further break downs of specific spending in each category. Also, the information is viewable in spreadsheet format.
State Employee Salaries --The Michigan Civil Service Commission provides only general information on things like employee compensation, workplace rules and regulations, and training schedules. Important spending-related information such as actual employee salaries and benefits and employee names are not available. The PDF copies of the Annual Workforce Reports only provide average salary information per department, which makes it more difficult to identify specific cases of exorbitant compensation packages and other waste.
LSJ.com, a local Michigan newspaper has prepared a database providing the names, titles, departments and salaries for more than 54,000 Michigan public employees.
Budget --The State Budget Office posts the state’s operating budget - the one-year spending plan for the financial operation of state government prepared on the behalf of the Governor by the Michigan Department of Management and Budget, State Budget Office. It represents the Governor's recommended appropriations for all operating funds, the proposed expenditures and estimated revenues of the State. The budgets for the last ten fiscal years are available and in searchable format.
Revenue --The State Budget Office also has revenue data available in a variety of financial reports. The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report and the State of Michigan Monthly Financial Report - May 2010 are the most recent documents. All documents are available in PDF formats, however they are not searchable, which makes looking for specific data more difficult. User friendly formats such as spreadsheets and searchable PDFs are essential for real analysis by citizens and watchdog groups looking for certain trends and government waste, fraud and abuse.
Contracts -- Contract information is made available in the “Buy Michigan First” section of the website. The list of 1,053 state contracts is in an excel spreadsheet with a brief description of the work being done, the cumulative cost, and the expiration date. However, the state does not make the actual signed contract documents available for PDF viewing. It merely lists the agency solicitations that are still open for bid. In order to view more information on both open and closed solicitation, you must be a registered vendor.
Fortunately, the site does provide information on the Freedom of Information Act and how to request contract information. But there is a fee involved and a waiting period.
[edit] Wisconsin
Wisconsin currently does not have a separate spending transparency portal online. Rather, all spending information is available in different areas of the official state website. Users must to navigate through multiple separate agency websites for the information they need. Fortunately, the site does have a useful search feature.
Budget – The Department of Administration provides state fiscal information including the 2009-2011 biennial budget. It is available in PDF format with each individual agency listed. Each link brings up a searchable PDF document which lists the governor’s budget recommendations, program goals and objectives, performance measures, and department budget summary by funding source (in thousands of dollars).
Expenditures & Revenues – There is a link for Expenditure Reports located on the Department of Administration’s website, however they are currently not available. However, there are a number of other documents available which provide both revenue and expenditure data in searchable PDF formats. First, the Monthly Statement of Receipts & Disbursements by Fund reports list receipts and disbursements from various funds, including General, Transportation, State Parks and the like from July 2008 to July 2010. The data show cumulative spending from each fund, but does not break down individual fund spending into line-itemed format. Next, the Monthly General Fund Financial Information report has both actual and projected cash flows for the General Fund from June 2001 until June 2010 and itemizes disbursements. Lastly, Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports are available every year from June 30, 1995 until June 30, 2009 and itemizes the state’s balance sheet, expenditures, revenues, and other financial information.
State Worker Salaries – The state does not provide a record of public employee compensation. However, The Journal Sentinel has made salary information available.
Contracts – The Bureau of Procurement has state contracts available online. They are broken down into categories for easier searching with each being assigned its own number. Users can access each contract to see the terms, contact information, costs, and the actual contract document itself.
[edit] Indiana
Indiana currently does not have a separate spending transparency portal online. Rather, all spending information is available in different areas of the official state website. Users must to navigate through multiple separate agency websites for the information they need. Fortunately, the site does have a useful search feature.
Budget –The State Budget Agency has Indiana’s 2009-2010 biennial budget and other budget related documents available online in a searchable PDF format. The biennial budget webpage has the table of contents for the document and allows users to open specific sections to review.
Expenditures – There is no one webpage dedicated to expenditure information. The data is all scattered throughout past budgets rather than in one easily accessible table or spreadsheet, mapping out and itemizing state spending over the years. Users need to open multiple budgets to compare expenditures from year to year.
Revenue – Like expenditure data, actual and projected revenue information is available in the biennial budgets. However, the Indiana Department of Revenue does provide Monthly Net Collections Reports for each month from January 2002 until June 2010. The tax collections from every source are compiled into poorly laid out revenue tables in PDF documents.
Contracts – The Indiana Department of Administration has all state contracts available on their website. The State's Active Contracts listing provides an up-to-date list of all professional services contracts in which the state is currently a party. The site has a very easy –to-use search option that allows users to narrow their search to the type of contract, the agency involved, the dollar amount, and vendors name. Afterwards users are able to access all contract information and even view the signed document in PDF format.
[edit] Connecticut
Connecticut does not have a centralized statewide website dedicated to transparency in government finances. Currently, financial information the state does provide is located in many different areas throughout the state’s general website, making the search for data difficult and time consuming.
First, let’s look at the transparency resources the state currently has in place. Most importantly, the biennial 2010-2011 budget is available with the Governor’s midterm adjustments. It is in PDF format and lists line-itemed proposed expenditures. Fortunately, the document is searchable and divided into tabbed sections, which makes finding specific information on particular programs and capital projects much easier.
Another plus is the disclosure of labor contracts. Currently the state has contracts for the 13 state employee bargaining units in the executive branch. The contracts listed include the State Police, Corrections Supervisors, Education Administrators, Protective Services, Maintenance, and Health Services among others. In addition, the site has annual compensation data available for each, however does not list first and last names of employees. It is merely a list of pay grades for each position.
More detailed salary information is provided by an independent group, The Yankee Institute for Public Policy, which supports the transparency site CTSunlight.org. The site provides payroll data, allowing individuals to review salary expenditures for each state agency for calendar years 2007, 2008 and 2009. Moreover, the site provides line item state government spending by agency, branch, and year as well as information about payments to retirees. Searching for specific information is fairly easy as users are able to rearrange the data according to preference. In states like Connecticut, private groups like this tend to fill the transparency void by requesting public records and compiling the data into online databases for the public to view. Searching for information on these sites tends to be simple and often rivals most state websites in terms of usability.
Revenue data is available on the Department of Revenue’s website, however necessitated a telephone call to their office to find exactly where the reports were located. The information for the last ten fiscal years is available in a PDF format, so searching is fairly easy.
[edit] Maine
Currently Maine has received an A- rating for overall transparency in government from Sunshine Review. This is because the state meets most of what the organization believes is required for openness in government. However, spending information is not available in a separate transparency portal, but is scattered in many different locations on the state’s website. This makes searching for specific data difficult and time consuming.
The state does have both of its biennial budgets available online – one for the General Fund and one for the Highway Fund – listing line-itemed expenditures. The line item format allows for a closer examination of program funding and also allows individuals to more easily identify areas to be cut or increased. The budgets can be accessed by opening files on this page.
The state has a section which lists service and labor contract information, however there are problems with format and the type of data that is actually provided. For example, the service contract section only lists basic information, such as the names of the vendors, a vague description of the products being bought, addresses, and contract numbers. The actual contract documents do not seem to be available, nor is price and cost data. Secondly, the information is poorly organized into a non-exportable HTML spreadsheet, which makes searching data more difficult. Maine can claim they have contract information available online, but the way in which it is organized makes research and analysis and comparing and sharing government spending data more difficult.
The state does not provided employee salary information online. However, the Maine Heritage Policy Institute runs a website which lists that information in a user friendly and searchable database. The site also features school spending data and lists checks given by the state to businesses and individuals. These too have been compiled into a searchable database.
[edit] Massachusetts
Sunshine Review gives Massachusetts an A+ rating for overall transparency. The state makes important documents available online, such as the annual budget, all current contracts, and tax revenue data. Yet the state is up there with the 18 others that do not have separate transparency portals. As it stands, the state’s spending information is available in different locations on the state website, making searching for data more difficult.
However, in an effort to create a one-stop-shop for spending information, the state-based Pioneer Institute developed an online database – MassOpenBooks. The site is much more than a simple online spreadsheet. Rather, it allows citizens across the state to find out what state employees’ make, who is getting what kind of pension and payments made by government agencies to businesses and people.
[edit] A Request for Information
If you or your organization is involved in shedding more light on state government spending, Show Me the Spending wants to know about it! Send us your work, interesting transparency facts, or information about transparency related efforts in your state. Also, sign up for our weekly Coalition Newsletter.
[edit] Newsletter signup
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First, try your hand at this month's collaborative transparency project. You can get involved with the Show Me the Spending project on Sunshine Review by editing (adding or improving information) on any page in the state spending online category. Also help build NTU's section of articles about the states that have put their spending online.
[edit] Identifying States Without Online Transparency Portals
For the month of August Show Me the Spending will be keeping you informed on those states which still lack separate transparency portals.
As a collaborative transparency effort, we encourage individuals and state-based watchdog groups to:
- Research their state's online spending transparency resources. Does your state have a separate online web portal dedicated to spending information?
- Send any relevant transparency updates to Show Me the Spending.
- Tell us about your organization's work, any state transparency developments, or legislative efforts for more transparency.
[edit] State salary project
State Government Salary Project Goals:
- To develop each state's Government benefits "state government salary" page into a "onestop shop" for learning about state government employees' compensation,
- To increase the number of links in Sunshine Review leading to each state's "state government salary" page, and
- To increase the number of links on the World Wide Web that lead to each state's "state government salary" page.
Currently we're working to post the top 10 paid government employees in each state. Check out the State government salary project for more information on how to do so.
[edit] Other ways to become involved
- Join Coalition to ensure that state and local governments post their expenditures online
- Check out Independent transparency sites.
- Ask your Elected Officials to sponsor this Model legislation for transparency in state government spending.
- How to respond when individuals or governments oppose transparency.
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