Bill seeks more transparency

COEUR d'ALENE - By next year, Idaho taxpayers might be able to go online to take a look at school districts' checkbooks.

A bill that requires districts with more than 300 students to post their expense and receipt registers on the Internet was approved Tuesday by the House Education Committee, despite opposition from the state's school boards, school administrators and rural school districts.

Pitched by Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, the bill requires that districts post their financial data on their Web sites by the end of 2010.

"Idaho lags pretty far behind in what we consider transparency in government," Hart said during a telephone interview from Boise. "With the technology that's available, we should be more up-to-date in providing access to what our government is spending our money on."

Hart believes that if the information is easily accessible, it will reduce the number of public information requests received by districts.

Most school officials in Kootenai County think otherwise, claiming they seldom receive requests for information at the level of detail provided by expense summaries.

"I would prefer public information requests in that public school budgets are very complicated and generally require explanations," said Judi Sharrett, superintendent of the Plummer-Worley Joint School District.

District administrators said they have no problem sharing public information, but expressed concerns about the potential cost of complying with the new requirement. Some questioned the necessity of posting the data online when they already open their books to the public whenever asked.

"Due to the number of checks issued - many for small amounts - these summaries have tended to generate more questions than answers," said Steve Briggs, financial director for the Coeur d'Alene district. "It is entirely possible that it could actually increase public information requests."

Tom Taggart, business director for the Lakeland School District, said increased inquiries would require districts to provide more manpower to handle them.

"I am hesitant in a time where we are facing extremely deep budget cuts to spend money and/or staff time on this type of project," Taggart said.

Harold Ott, representing Idaho Rural Schools, testified before the committee in Boise, "In a time when budgets are extremely tight and we're worrying about how to keep our doors open, adding this extra duty, particularly to the small districts that in most cases have very, very small fund balances, is just one more straw on the camel's back."

Wayne Hoffman, executive director of the Boise-based Idaho Freedom Foundation, told the committee that his nonprofit, non-partisan organization's efforts to provide online public access to government payrolls, budgets and expenditures are part of a national movement.

The policy research group recently posted an online database on its Web site, OurIdaho.com, with payroll info for public school employees from every district in the state.

"The transparency effort in general is designed to help people better understand how their dollars are being spent," Hoffman said. "When people are able to actually look at check registers and see how $1.50 was spent or $10,000 was spent or $100,000 was spent, it boosts the confidence that people have in how their government is spending money."

The education committee in Boise agreed to send the bill to House general orders for amending. One of the likely changes will be to remove or modify a requirement that all districts provide their expense and receipt registers online in a searchable electronic database.

Hart said he's glad to have the opportunity to tweak the bill in that respect.

"The intent is to keep things as simple as possible to comply with the legislation at as little cost as possible," Hart said. "Really, every school district has the technology to comply with this bill sitting right on their desktops."