County governments in Texas may be the worst offenders of transparency information missing from their websites, according to Sunshine Review. However, the biggest failing grade in Texas for online accountability of a public entity goes to the more than 1,700 special districts. And they tax Texans into the billions of dollars. According to the Sunshine Review, the 254 counties in Texas earned a failing grade. By reviewing 10 categories for each county government website, they earned a collective “F.” Sunshine Review seeks access to basic information on the website of a county, city, school district, state government and state agencies.

No public official should ignore that they’re being watched by groups like Sunshine Review to ensure taxpayers at their desktop or laptop computer can see specific information about the budget, meetings, public officials, and ethics. Cities, school districts and state agencies each earned a “B.” Texas government’s texasonline.com website earned a B-. While the 254 counties earned Sunshine Review’s lowest grade, they examined core governments. The group did not grade special districts. Special districts own the title of the most secretive public entities in Texas. All one has to do is look at the massive growth of special districts and then compare that to the available information under the category on the Leadership Circle of the State Comptroller’s website. “Texas has numerous special districts with a wide variety of purposes. Whether they are metropolitan transit authorities providing public transportation, river authorities protecting the state's surface water, or community colleges providing secondary education, all special districts are public agencies. As such, their records are open to the public,” the Leadership Circle home page for special districts state.

If one examines the Leadership Circle page — http://www.texastransparency.org/local/special-districts.php — one could think special districts do a tremendous job of being transparent. Of the 23 special districts listed, eight of them have earned a Gold, Silver or Bronze designation from the comptroller. The reality is it’s far worse. There are more than 1,700 special districts statewide, which translates to less than 2 percent of special districts posted on the Leadership Circle website. What an abysmal record. Also, there’s more than 1,200 cities statewide, but only about 550 of them are identified on the Leadership Circle website and only about 120 of those have earned the Gold, Silver or Bronze designation. The most recent data from 2009 reveals special districts receive property or sales tax dollars of more than $5 billion. Many of them are on the November ballot renewing their ability to tax, increasing the amount they tax or creating more districts that will be empowered to take more money from Texans.

What’s worse, if one seeks salary data from people overseeing these districts, officials with many of them will insist the Texas Public Information Act does not apply to them. What? They receive sales or property tax dollars and they’re not subject to the open records law? What civics class did these people take? In the 83rd legislative session, lawmakers must require existing special districts to have their own website by a specific date and new ones within 30 days after being created. Those special districts also must report vital information to the State Comptroller each year. Also, the county or city where the special district(s) are located must provide links to the home page of the website for each special district. Transparency and accountability is still about actions, not words, and it’s about time the people running these special districts understood taxpayers are their CEO. If they can’t improve, shut them down.