TYLER — State Comptroller Susan Combs said Wednesday that Smith County and Tyler's city and school board have set the standard in financial transparency in local Texas government.
While Longview, Gregg County and area schools participate in Combs' transparency program that recognizes openness in public spending, city of Longview spokesman Shawn Hara said reaching the standard set in Tyler would require costly computer software upgrades.
Combs honored Smith County, the city of Tyler and Tyler Independent School District for reaching the gold standard of Leadership Circle financial transparency. The Leadership Circle gold designation highlights local governments that set the bar in revealing their financial books to the public. Chapel Hill, Arp and Lindale schools earned bronze recognition.
The designations last one year.
Tyler is the only city in Texas to provide the three key documents — financial reports, budgets and check registers — online, according to the comptroller's Web site.
Tyler Mayor Barbara Bass said the city took interest in the comptroller's transparency initiative during a Jan. 22 visit. Four months later, the city began publishing its weekly check register online, making it the only Texas city to do so.
"Community-wise, we're one big family," Bass, a Longview native, said, "and the family needs to know what's going on with the family checkbook."
Bass said Tyler already had in place the software package necessary for online check register reports. Another Tyler Web site tool allows browsers to access a city council discussion and vote on an agenda item with one click of a link.
Hara said Longview administrators have researched adding such software programs, but the start-up costs have been an obstacle. He did not have cost estimates for programs that support online check registers, but he said the software package for links to agenda item discussions costs some $30,000.
Hara said there are benefits to posting a government's financial records online.
"Not every person that is going to be wondering about your financial information is going to be a Longview resident," Hara said. "It could be for any reason, like a person considering moving, or a business taking a look at the community, or whatever it is. And this way they don't have go from city to city or Web site to Web site."
Comptroller staff maintain the Transparency Check-Up Web site, www.window.state.tx.us/comptrol/checkup/. The site lists, in alphabetical order the names of each school district, city, county, river authority or metropolitan transit authority along with links to its main Web site, budgets, financial reports and check registers.
The entities are responsible for the accuracy and maintenance of the information.
"This is a list. That list is compiled as we survey all the different cities and counties in the state," comptroller's office spokesman R.J. DeSilva said. "In some cases, this is new for a county or small city. We're starting off with the basics and building on that."
The Texas Legislature in 2007 enacted House Bill 3430, which called for the comptroller's office to create an online state expenditure database. The site, www.window.state.tx.us/wherethemoneygoes gives browsers online access to up-to-the-minute information on state agency expenditures down to the pens and pencils, according to the site.
"I think anything that would allow more transparency to the taxpayer is beneficial to the community," Mary Troboy, business manager at Big Sandy Independent School District, said. Big Sandy's budget can be downloaded from the site.
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