Lone Star Report Recent Blog Posts

Yesterday, a commentary from me aired on WFAA television’s “Inside Texas Politics”. In my commentary, I called on Tarrant, Dallas, and Denton counties to put their check registers online. A commenter to our blog pointed out that Tarrant County includes its check register (called a "claims register")in the .PDF of the commissioners court agenda, which is online.

Here’s where I got the information from: the Comptroller of Public Accounts posts a transparency check-up on her Web site. When I checked that page last week, Tarrant was listed as not having check registers online. I also visited the websites of the three counties and looked for a check register. I looked on the main page and also pages related to the budget. I also typed “check register” into the online search engine. I couldn’t find a check register, so I assumed that the Comptroller’s website was indeed correct.

It now turns out that Tarrant County does have that information on the Internet, but it isn’t exactly easy to find. Compare that with Collin County, which posts a searchable, sortable Microsoft Excel file on a page dedicated to fiscal transparency.

I’m glad that Tarrant County puts this information on the Internet. The next step toward full transparency is making it easy to find and use. By the way, Tarrant County does have a searchable database of vendors on its Web site, as well.

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