![]() Mike Beebe (D) signed the bill into law on March 17. The "Arkansas Financial Transparency Act" was passed by the legislature in March 2011 Gov. He also attempted to have a “post the finances” ballot initiative created in California in 2003.Īlaska started publishing parts of its checkbook register in early 2008. Mozena made “post the finances” a major plank in his 2001 campaign for Mayor of Los Angeles, his 2004 run for mayor of Carson, California, and his runs for councilmember of Carson in 20. On this website, Mozena calls for all government departments and agencies to post their finances to their respective websites every day, in the form of a simple online checkbook. In California, small-businessman and community activist Steve Mozena started promoting his idea for what he called “post the finances” in 1999. ![]() A reasonable goal for transparency advocates is online posting of enough information (check number, payee, date, dollar amount and purpose) to facilitate asking specific questions without inviting abuses or defeating the goals of citizen participation.Ī cautionary note on online check registers (not an objection in principle) is that they may focus public attention on small, specific expenses, which are usually easy to understand, but do little to illuminate complex decisions that drive the bulk of every district’s total budget costs. They need not be accepted as excuses for publishing nothing, nor should they be dismissed quickly. Minimizing these problems may require either human judgment on a case-by-case basis or software programming that automatically blanks out some information within sensitive line-item categories. ![]() ![]() These should be available on request but not necessarily published automatically. For example, tracking money flows in a medium-sized Pennsylvania school district requires approximately 15,000 distinct accounting codes. Inclusion of full administrative detail like accounting codes may reduce the usefulness of the data to most citizens, if only by making reports too long to print out conveniently.Publishing the addresses of teachers receiving reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses can make it easier to harass unpopular teachers.Publishing the addresses of teachers receiving reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses makes it easier for vendors to target unwanted commercial pitches.In addition to potential harm done to individuals, the school may be exposed to legal liabilities. For public schools, posting certain checkbook register data may make it possible to identify students with special medical needs.Government entities may, however, raise legitimate concerns when urged to publish details like payee addresses or links to the contracts under which expenditures are made. There are few, if any, technical reasons why a government entity cannot simply publish all the data categories tracked by its business office. As of mid-August 2008, the list included 251 school districts in 14 states. Wolcott maintains a roster of school districts that have joined the move to post check registers online. At that time, the list of school districts posting their check registers online was comprised of four smaller school districts in Wolcott's home state of Texas. Wolcott inaugurated the National School District Honor Roll on her website on October 1, 2006. The movement for public school districts to post their checkbook registers online originated with Texas education activist and journalist Peyton Wolcott. It also includes a budget object code and, usually, a short memo explaining the expenditure (e.g., “purchase of six Dell computers” or “travel expense reimbursement”). Like an individual’s checkbook, a government agency's checkbook register includes a transaction number, a date, the name of a payee (e.g., a vendor or an employee) and a dollar amount. Checkbook register online refers to the movement to empower people to scrutinize and oversee government by asking that government agencies post their checkbook registers online in an easily accessible and searchable format.
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