AUSTIN – The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s (TPPF) Center for Local Governance Senior Policy Analyst Jess Fields testified yesterday before the House Committee on Government Transparency and Operations on four key transparency bills: House Bill 283, House Bill 3041, House Bill 3408, and House Bill 4053.
House Bill 283 would require some local governments to post audio and video recordings of their public meetings on the internet. House Bill 3041 would ensure that fiscal impact documents created in the disbursement of public funds are made available online. House Bill 3408 would require municipalities to post three years of comprehensive annual financial reports online. House Bill 4053 would ensure that all political subdivisions of the state of Texas would post at least their most recent comprehensive annual financial report or similar report online.
“These important bills would increase the amount of financial information available to the public via the internet, which has become the go-to information source for most Texans,” said Fields. “Local governments in Texas should ensure that their citizens have the greatest amount of access possible to the documents and proceedings of their governments, and the ability to clearly discern how their taxpayer dollars are being used. Texans have a fundamental right to know what their government is doing.”
To schedule an interview with Mr. Fields, please contact Caroline Espinosa at [email protected] or 512-472-2700.
The Hon. Jess Fields is the Senior Policy Analyst in the Center for Local Governance at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and a former College Station City Councilman.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin, Texas.