McMillin Gets Transparency in School Budgets

Congratulations to State Rep. Tom McMillin. Since taking office in January, he has been pushing for more transparency in state budgets. (Right now, it is virtually impossible to get any details on how your tax dollars are being spent.)

If you have been following the news, you know that the School Aid budget, that $13 billion behemoth, was the last budget to be resolved. It looks like that has finally happened. The great news is that there will not be any tax increases to pay for the budget, so far. On top of that, Tom McMillin's transparency components will be included in the budget, at least for this year. The following requirements will be written into the School Aid Fund budget for each district this year:

• Annual operating budget(s).
• Personnel expenditures, including salaries, wages, and employee benefit costs and retirement benefit costs.
• All other district expenditures, including instruction, support services, business and administration, and operations and maintenance.
• Current collective bargaining agreement for each bargaining unit.
• Each health care benefits plan offered to any bargaining unit or employee in the district.
• Audit for the most recent fiscal year available.
• Total salary and a description and cost of each fringe benefit included in the compensation package for the superintendent and for each employee whose salary exceeds $100,000.
• Annual amount spent on dues paid to associations.
• Annual amount spent on lobbying or lobbying services.

Way to go, Tom!