BILL ANALYSIS
By: Strama
Committee Report (Substituted)
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
The Texas state budget has grown to over $160 billion for the coming biennium. The citizens and taxpayers of this state are entitled to as much information as possible about how their tax dollars are spent. Direct citizen access to information has helped create an additional check and balance on the power of government enabling millions of citizens to conduct their own research and to hold government accountable in ways that were not previously possible.
In spite of more open government and emerging technologies that allow citizens easier access to information, in order to obtain state expenditure information, citizens must acquire the information via individual state agencies. This bill would improve the existing system by creating a single, searchable, and publicly available online database of state expenditures.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Comptroller of Public Accounts in SECTION 1 of this bill.
ANALYSIS
The bill amends the Government Code requiring the Comptroller of Public Accounts (comptroller) to establish and post on the Internet, a Searchable State Expenditure Database (database). The bill sets forth the guidelines and requirements for the database, such as the database be electronically searchable, intuitive to users, and available free of charge to the public. Moreover, the database should include certain information such as: the amount, date, payor, and payee of expenditures; and a listing of state expenditures by object of expense with links to the warrant or check register level, and class and item levels as appropriate.
Likewise, bill also requires the database, at a minimum, to allow users to: search and aggregate state funding by any element of the information; ascertain through a single search the total amount of state funding awarded to a person by a state agency; and download information yielded by a search of the database.
Notwithstanding guidelines and requirements for the database as prescribed by the bill, the comptroller may not allow public access to the home addresses of private individuals or to information posted under this section that is not subject to required disclosure under Chapter 552 of the Government Code. The bill further states that it is an affirmative defense to prosecution under Section 552.352(a) that the comptroller or an officer or employee of the comptroller's office acted in reliance on a determination made by a state agency about the confidentiality of information relating to the agency's expenditures.
The bill allows the comptroller to establish procedures and adopt rules to implement the database. Likewise, the bill requires a state agency to cooperate with and provide information to the comptroller as necessary to implement and administer the database, including information required to be in the database that is already being collected or maintained by a state agency.
The bill requires that each state agency that maintains a generally accessible internet site, shall include a link on the agency's Internet site to the database. Likewise, the bill also provides that the Department of Information Resources, after consultation with the comptroller, shall prominently include a link to the database established under this section on the public home page of the TexasOnline Project.
Lastly, the bill only applies to expenditures made on or after October 1, 2007.
EFFECTIVE DATE
October 1, 2007.
COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE
The original bill was filed in shell form as the author continued to develop the appropriate language; whereas the substitute legislates the objectives laid out in the original bill.