She’s no lazy Susan. Comptroller Susan Combs has gotten a head start on implementing House Bill 3430 requiring all state agencies to post their expenditures online. The Comptroller’s newly unveiled site reveals expenditures for nearly 200 agencies and institutions under broad categories such as salaries, travel and supplies.
Another section called A Closer Look provides more in-depth spending information for more than 20 state agencies.
Combs began posting state expenditure information online in January. As more public agencies began supplying financial reporting data, the comptroller decided to place all the data online.
“Our goal is to demystify government finances,” Combs says. “We want Texans to understand, in plain language, how and where their money gets spent.”
House Bill 3430 which awaits, and almost certainly will, receive the Governor’s signature will require that detailed information for all state agencies eventually be posted online. Still needed is similar legislation for local governments, particularly school districts, which managed to kill legislation this session that would have required them to post their check registries online. Gross missappropriation of school funds for personal purposes recently resulted in indictments of Dallas ISD personnel.
