Kansas Spending Transparency

Recent Developments

2010:

Introduced in February 2010, HB 2672 amends the Taxpayer Transparency Act to add tax expenditures as reported by the Secretary of Revenue in the annual Tax Expenditure Report to the list of information included in the searchable online database developed by the Secretary of Administration.

Referred to House Committee on Taxation on February 10, 2010.

SB 559, the corresponding Senate legislation, was in introduced in February 2010.

Passed Senate on March 10, 2010. Introduced in House and assigned to House Committee on Taxation on March 12, 2010.

Previously:

The Kansas Legislature voted in 2007 to create a single searchable online database for government spending. Since that requirement was attached to the budget, it was only valid for one year, and had to be re-passed as stand-alone legislation in 2008.  Another requirement of the act is the creation of a public finance transparency board.
 

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State Spending Transparency Efforts

Website:
Kansas KanView
live since March 2008

Legal Authority:

• Gov. Kathleen Sebelius signed HB 2457, the Taxpayer Transparency Act sponsored by Rep. Kasha Kelley (R-Arkansas City) as part of the budget in June of 2007.
• HB2730, also sponsored by Rep. Kasha Kelley, re-passed the Taxpayer Transparency Act as stand-alone bill and was signed by the governor in April of 2008. 

Vote Margin:

HB 2457 (2007)
House: 102 - 20
Senate - bill was attached to the budget and passed as a one-year proviso.

HB 2730 (2008)
House: 119 : 3
SB 316 became the vehicle after time had lapsed for HB 2730.
Adoption of conference committee report:
House: 120 : 0 with 5 not voting.
Senate: 38 : 0 with 1 not voting.

Fiscal Note:
While there is no official document available, a number that has been cited by opponents as the cost of implementing the legislation was $40 million. This number, however is misleading at best, because it is the reported cost of replacing the state's entire financial management system. In the end, the implementation of the spending transparency legislation was slipped into the context of the overhaul, so the actual cost of implementation was $0.

Agency Tasked With Implementation:
Secretary of Administration
Curtis State Office Building
1000 SW Jackson, Suite 500
Topeka, Kansas 66612-1300    
voice: (785) 296-3011
fax: (785) 296-2702

Timeline:

• The website was to be developed and placed in operation on or before March 1, 2008.
• The requirement was met with the launch of the site on March 1, 2008. However, parts of the covered expenditure information are not yet online, such as salary information.
• That data that is available in the central accounting system and state payroll system shall be available on the single website as soon as possible, but not later than 45 days after the last day of the preceding fiscal year.

Covered Expenditures:

• Disbursements by any state agency from funds established within the state treasury;
• bond debt payments;
• salaries and wages including, but not limited to, compensation paid to individual employees of state agencies;
• contractual services including, but not limited to, amounts paid to individual vendors; commodities including, but not limited to, amounts paid to individual vendors;
• capital outlay including, but not limited to, amounts paid to individual vendors;
• debt service including, but not limited to, amounts of bond interest paid and sources of funds paid for individual bond issues;
• aid to local units including, but not limited to, amounts paid to individual units of government for individually identifiable aid programs;
• other assistance and benefits; and
• capital improvements including, but not limited to, amounts of bond principal paid and sources of funds paid for individual bond issues.

Also covered:

Receipts or deposits by any state agency into funds established within the state treasury;
taxes including, but not limited to:

• compulsory contributions imposed by the state for the purpose of financing services;
• agency earnings including, but not limited to, amounts collected by each agency for merchandise sold, services performed, licenses and permits issued, or regulation;
• revenue for the use of money and property including, but not limited to, amounts received for compensation for the use of state-owned money and property;
• gifts, donations and federal grants including, but not limited to, amounts received from public and private entities to aid in support of a specific function or other governmental activity;
• other revenue including, but not limited to, receipts not classified elsewhere; and
• non-revenue receipts including, but not limited to, all receipts that do not constitute reportable revenue; and
• annual bonded indebtedness which shall include, but not be limited to, the amount of the total original obligation stated in terms of principal and interest, the term of the obligation, the source of funding for repayment of the obligation, the amounts of principal and interest previously paid to reduce the obligation, the balance remaining of the obligation, any refinancing of the obligation, and the cited statutory authority to issue such bonds; and
• any other relevant information specified by the secretary of admin-istration after consulting with and seeking the advice of the public finance transparency board.

Exempt Information:

• Information not available in the central accounting system and the state payroll system at the time of initial implementation of the website;
• information which is considered confidential by state or federal law.

Data Format:

 ‘‘Searchable website’’ means a website that allows the public to search and aggregate the information, including requirements that the website offer the public the ability to efficiently search and display data, and ascertain the total amounts of revenues and expenditures of funds established within the state treasury in an aggregate or summary form in a manner determined by the secretary ofadministration, of compensation paid to public employees employedby state agencies, and of bond debt.

Expenditure Documents Included?
Not  required by the act.

Salary Information Included?
Required by the act, implementation still pending.

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Previous Levels of Spending Transparency

The Department of Administration hosts a procurement contract listing.

 

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Local Spending Transparency Efforts

If you know of local spending transparency efforts in Kansas or would like to get involved, please let us know.

 

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Elsewhere Around the Country: