| BGA Updates Popular Web Payroll Database
Website now includes updates to existing records, additions of more public agencies
CHICAGO - The Better Government Association ("BGA") continues to expand its online database of public payrolls, which already contains nearly 220,000 records.
The database, available at www.bettergov.org/Research includes additions made during this past spring. It now lists salaries for:
- City of Chicago
- Cook County
- Cook County Forest Preserve District
- Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority
- Chicago Housing Authority
- Chicago Transit Authority
- Metropolitan Water Reclamation District
- Chicago Park District
- Chicago Public Schools
- City Colleges of Chicago
- State of Illinois
Salaries for City of Chicago employees have been updated and are now current, as of April 10, 2008.
The database is free and searchable by employee name. The records were obtained under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Users can browse the information, which includes employee first and last names, job titles, departments, start dates, and annual salaries. Updates to the Cook County and State of Illinois payrolls will be added soon.
“For state and local governments employee pay is usually their biggest expense and thus uses the bulk of taxpayer dollars. As taxpayers are continually asked to bail out every unit of government across Illinois, citizens should be able to get an idea of where their tax dollars are going,” said BGA Executive Director Jay Stewart. “Our elected officials tell us there is no more wasteful patronage, despite criminal trials that indicate otherwise” Stewart said. “The database allows citizens to decide for themselves if patronage and padding the payroll still occurs.”
Since its launch in October 2007, the website has received more than 1.5 million page views, with daily traffic averaging more than 6,000. This demonstrates that, when information is made available, citizens are indeed interested in their government. Members of the public continue to provide overwhelmingly positive feedback, with much of the praise coming from those working within government.
In addition, the BGA is currently in the process of broadening the payroll database to include information from other agencies in Illinois, as well as other states such as Indiana, Wisconsin, and Missouri.
“Most units of government have been ushered into the computer age and are using standard electronic payroll systems. The BGA hopes that, by demonstrating how easy it is to make this information available over the Internet, governments across Illinois will make critical public information available online. However, until then the BGA will do so” said Stewart.
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