The Kansas budget, counting all state and federal funds, is more than $12.6 billion, but how is this money spent?  A new web site, KanView, went online on Feb. 29 to help Kansans answer that question. KanView is the biggest improvement in government transparency since Jan 2006 when political contribution information was put online.

The goal of legislation from 2007, which was pushed by Kasha Kelly, R-Arkansas City, was to make financial activity of state government more transparent and readily accessible to the public, thus increasing accountability in state spending.  According to the Arkansas City Traveler:

With the Web site people may look up income and expenses from just about any agency in the state. This includes the University of Kansas and Kansas State.

[Kelley] believes government should be open, and a key part of that is giving the public a way to have access to information about where money goes.

Some had criticized the bill, saying that the information is already available. But Kelley said this makes it easier for people, where they can get to everything at one place.

"This site will give people information they need to make a rational judgment," she said. "Some may think too much is spent on a certain thing, but they may think not enough is spent."

Kansas is the only state to have passed a transparency bill, and Kelley believes other states will follow suit.

To visit KanView click on this  http://www.accesskansas.org/kanview or this one: http://www.kansas.gov/kanview

What is KanView?  The site includes the following categories of information:

Annual expenditures, including:

• Agency disbursements
• Bond debt payments
• Salary and wages
• Contractual services
• Commodities
• Capital Outlay
• Debt service
• Aid to local units of government
• Assistance and benefits
• Capital improvements

Annual Revenues representing agency receipts and deposits into funds established within the state treasury, including:

• Taxes
• Agency earnings
• Revenue from the use of money and property
• Gifts, donations, and federal grants
• Other revenues

Annual bond indebtedness

Any other relevant information specified by the Secretary of Administration with consultation and advice from the Public Finance Transparency Board.

Kanview Data:

Generally, the source of KanView data is the Statewide Accounting and Reporting System (STARS). Under provisions of the Taxpayer Transparency Program, KanView will initially contain STARS historical revenue and expenditure general ledger data for FY 2006 and FY 2007. Prospectively the legislation requires data for 10 fiscal years. This data will be searchable with the capability to “drill down” to the voucher document level. Document detail level data elements displayed on KanView include Fund, Budget Unit, Program Cost Account, Sub-Object Code, Voucher, Process Date, Amount, and Vendor Name.

Kanview will not disclose information that is considered confidential by federal or state law. It also is not useful in reviewing campaign and other political contributions. The state's failure to make this information freely available has earned it a D grade from the Pew Center on the States.

Members of the media were invited to a demonstration of KanView on Feb. 25 in the Division of the Budget conference room at the Landon State Office Building in Topeka, but sadly since then the press has given little explanation to the public about this resource.  

Normally, sites like this one would be heavily trafficked by those seeking information. But two days after it was launched, a Google News search showed only one result for any articles about KanView (a brief, three-line article in the Lawrence Journal-World ) with three links nearly a week ago for brief articles related to this media demonstration of KanView in the Salina Journal, The Hutchinson News, and WIBW in Topeka.  

A search of the NewsBank database of major Kansas newspapers for "KanView" only showed the article from the Hutchinson News in the 30 days following the site's launch and four articles in the first week of January in the Emporia Gazette, Newton Kansan, Hays Daily News, and Wichita Eagle.  No article about KanView can be found in the Kansas City Star.  Why do newspapers, especially major Kansas newspapers, appear to have such little interest in state government accountability and this new web site?

The press should consider some examples of how the KanView information explains how our state government serves Kansans.  One example might be why the Expenditures by the Secretary of State have increased so much in a one-year period, when Tax Revenues dropped: