Oklahoma’s Counties Fare Poorly in Transparency Study

OFRG to expand on research to look at school districts in the state

 

(Oklahoma City, OK)  A study of all 77 counties in Oklahoma posted on the website SunshineReview.org shows that a majority fail to meet even the basic level of transparency by having a website.   That results in Oklahoma ranking 39^th in the nation when it comes to county transparency according to the study.  SunshineReview.org is a wiki website that is constantly updated by the public to show how transparent their local governments are.

 

“It’s a shame that 48 of the 77 counties in the state don’t even have a website,” said Brian Downs, Oklahomans for Responsible Government Executive Director.  “The internet has made government much more accessible to taxpayers and such a basic form of transparency should be available in every county.”

 

The transparency checklist includes:

 

ü  The current budget

ü  Meeting notices and agendas

ü  The names and contact information for elected officials

ü  Information on whether the county or any of its agencies pays for lobbyists

ü  A central location for all tax and fee information.

 

Of the counties that do have websites, only Payne and Rogers have their entire budgets posted online according to SunshineReview.org’s research.  Oklahoma County meets six of the ten criteria completely while Beaver County meets five.  They are the only two counties to score 50% or higher in the state. 

 

OFRG will use the same set of criteria to look at every school district in Oklahoma to see how open they are to public scrutiny.

 

“Education is the single largest budget item in the state,” said Downs.  “It’s important that school districts be transparent on how that money is going to be spent, especially since some people want to force the state to pump hundreds of millions more dollars into education.”

 

State Question 744 on the ballot in 2010 would require the state to spend 850-million more dollars on education to bring per-pupil spending up to the regional average.

 

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