Transparency Rankings

Growing expenditures made at the city government level necessitate a greater level of transparency.

With this in mind, TexasBudgetSource.com has developed its own transparency rankings to recognize local government that lead, put an effort into, or can improve upon transparency initiatives, according to three categories: exemplary, pass, and fail. These rankings are based on an analysis of what information the county has posted online—e.g. budgets, check registers, and financial statements—as well as the quantity of information available; how prominently it is displayed; how searchable the information is; and whether the data is in an easily downloadable format that users can manipulate.

More cities will be added to these rankings as their information is reviewed. If your city is currently ranked by Texas Budget Source, but has upgraded its transparency, please send a note to TexasBudgetSource.com.

The categories are defined below:

• Exemplary
  An “exemplary” ranking indicates that a local government has exceeded basic expectations of open government.
• Pass
  A “pass” designation indicates a local government that has taken steps to become transparent, but with room for improvement.
• Fail
  A rank of “fail” denotes an entity that is not meeting its obligation to make public information available, accessible, or searchable.

Exemplary Cities

Arlington
The city of Arlington has an entire page dedicated to open government – including its budget, financial reports, campaign finance reports/check registers, city council meeting agendas, minutes, and videos, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act data, and open records requests links.

Corpus Christi
The city of Corpus Christi has posted adopted budgets, capital budgets, comprehensive annual financial reports, city annual reports, and check registers.

Huntsville
The city of Huntsville exemplifies the rank of exemplary with its inclusion of its financial reports, budgets, and check registers, plus the ease of access to find the data.

Passing Cities

Austin
The city of Austin has recently increased its transparency initiatives, but needs to improve by posting their check registers to the website.

Dallas
To earn a ranking of exemplary from Texas Budget Source, the city of Dallas needs to begin posting its check registers.

Houston
Houston has been recognized with a passing rank, with the potential to improve its fiscal transparency with the inclusion of its check registers.

Failing Cities

Each of the following cities has made minimal attempts to provide fiscal transparency to the public. These cities may have tried to post at least one budget to their site, but remain well short of what we consider to be complete fiscal transparency.

1) Brownsville

2) San Marcos

3) Waco