Here are the top-rated jurisdictions:
Currently, the program includes one village, two colleges, five towns, 15 counties, 19 special districts, 76 cities and 93 independent school districts. Each member is awarded one to five stars based on its financial transparency.
According to the Comptroller’s website, the program recognizes government entities that “open their books not only in their traditional finances but also in the areas of contracts and procurement, economic development, public pensions and debt obligations.”
They also must “provide clear and meaningful financial information not only by posting financial documents but also through summaries, visualizations, downloadable data and other relevant information.”
To earn five stars, entities must apply for the program and submit data for the most recently completed fiscal year. Examples of this include:
- Expenditures as total and per capita or student
- Revenues from all entity funds expressed as total and per capita or student amounts
- Total full-time equivalent positions for all personnel
- Revenues from property taxes as total and per capita or student
- Revenues from sales taxes as total and per capita or student
Other requirements include posting data visualizations to entities’ websites that show time trends spanning at least five years of revenues and expenditures per capita or student and property tax rates per $100 valuation.
Users must also be able to download the following information from participants’ websites:
- Budgets for the last five fiscal years
- Annual financial reports for the previous five fiscal years
- Raw format budget for the current fiscal year
- Raw format check registers for three complete fiscal years
More information about the Comptroller’s Transparency Stars program can be found online.
