Local Transparency Gains Momentum in the Golden State

Thursday, July 7, 2011 9:10 AM by Soren Kreider

In a state plagued by chronic overblown compensation for state and local government employees, new information provided by California Controller John Chiang comes as a welcome step forward for transparency.  Earlier this week, Chiang’s office updated its salary database with pay, pension benefits and other compensation data for 256,222 state of California employees and another 123,406 California State University workers.  What’s more, despite the initially lethargic response to the City of Bell fiasco—the impetus for subsequent transparency reform—the California Controller’s payroll database now contains information on over 600,000 local and municipal workers.

Public access to state and local government payrolls is an important step towards holding lawmakers accountable. Controller Chiang’s new reporting requirements increase the availability of financial data and pull back the veil of opacity which has characterized many California cities and municipalities.  When salary information is open to taxpayer scrutiny, the chances of another $800,000 city manager salary occurring on their watch is slim.

Despite these recent achievements, significant work still needs to be done, both in California and elsewhere, to expand transparency to local governments.  Controller Chiang’s website provides a list of local governments which have failed to provide salary data, urging residents to pressure local lawmakers to open their records to public scrutiny.  But on the whole, today’s news is good for California taxpayers and it is encouraging to see transparency reform gaining momentum in the Golden State.

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