$607,435 – the one-time pension payment made to a retired Kansas school district employee in 2009. This is according to KansasOpenGov, a state transparency project of the Kansas Policy Institute that tracks state government spending.
This type of spending transparency and openness in government are crucial in an open society. When citizens know how their tax dollars are being spent they are better able to hold government accountable and demand changes. Government then becomes more responsive to constituent's concerns, thus bolstering public confidence, promoting fiscal responsibility, and reducing the prospects of waste, fraud, and abuse.
Over the last few years state governments across the country have been creating entirely new web portals dedicated to spending transparency, listing state employee salaries, providing state operating budgets and the like. Independent organizations have also jumped on the transparency bandwagon, often times filling the void in states that do not yet have official transparency sites. They attempt to organize financial information into user friendly and searchable formats.
KansasOpenGov is a fine example of this. Created as a public service by the Kansas Policy Institute, the site offers Kansans a clear look at how their state and local tax dollars are spent. Gathering all information directly from official government sources, the site provides state financial data including employee salaries, property tax liabilities per county, school spending data, and much more in searchable formats.
The home page features an interactive map of the state and its counties. It allows users to scroll over each county to see 2009 property tax summaries - total property taxes collected, average mill rates, total population and average residential assessed value. Also included are the percentage changes in each of these areas since 1997. This allows users to see how county governments have grown relative to population over the years.
Under the State Government tab users can access information related to general state spending. Information includes state employee compensation, a contract database and a checkbook feature that itemizes government spending by year, agency, city, and check number. Most notable is the break down of state employees earning over $100, 000 a year, the majority of which work at state hospitals and universities. Considering the current economic climate and long-standing high unemployment numbers, it is especially important that salary information be available to taxpayers for analysis. After all, it is the private, productive sector that supports these high wages through taxation.
Users can also access school district spending information. The site includes data on individual districts and group totals and/or averages for all districts in Kansas. Also included are the 63 current district members of Schools for Fair Funding (SFFF), which are using taxpayer funds to sue the state and demanding that funding be increased by several hundred million dollars.
Giving taxpayers the ability to see how government uses the public purse reinforces the system of checks and balances by giving citizens the tools to check corruption and promote fiscal responsibility.