State senators blocked legislation Tuesday that would have required California agencies to post basic budget information on their websites — a blow to one lawmaker’s efforts to improve transparency about how government spends taxpayer dollars.
“It’s about full disclosure to those we serve, our constituents,” said Sen. Mike Morrell, R-Rancho Cucamonga, as he presented the bill before the Senate Governmental Organization Committee.
Morrell’s bill, SB 921, would require state agencies to disclose how many employees they have (full- and part-time), the size of their authorized annual budget, and the source of their funding — such as the general fund, bond funds or special funds.
Although state budget information is public record, with the annual budget posted on the Department of Finance’s website, taxpayers’ advocates say finding detailed information about each state agency is tedious and time consuming.
“The state budget is more than 2,000 pages,” said Katy Grimes, president of the Sacramento Taxpayers Association. “Inside this behemoth hides each state agency’s budget details. This requires the work of a forensic accountant, and we shouldn’t require a forensic accountant to access and navigate state agency budgets.”
Without easy access to basic budget information, Grimes added, taxpayers cannot truly understand the cost of government services.
Several Democratic senators questioned why the budget information should be posted, suggesting that state law requires public disclosure of budget information to anyone who asks for it.
“Any information regarding state spending, if there is a request made by the public, must be provided,” said Sen. Ben Hueso, D-San Diego, who later abstained from voting on the measure. “So, I don’t understand what’s the obstacle and how this bill would change anything.”
He also suggested that posting top-line spending data on an agency homepage might not provide the necessary context of what an agency does.
But most constituents, Morrell maintained, wouldn’t take the time to call or to write to an agency for that information, much less scroll through a 2,000-page online budget trying to find an answer to their questions.
“We want to make sure were not hiding the money, not intentionally, from people,” Morrell said. “We want to make the information easy and accessible to them.”
The bill failed to pass out of committee along a 4-3 party-line vote, with all Republicans on the Senate Governmental Organization Committee voting for the measure and Democrats either voting against it or abstaining. The bill is eligible for reconsideration and could come up again for another vote.
