California Forward
It is only weeks into this new legislative session and Democratic state lawmakers have already introduced a handful of bills aimed at increasing campaign disclosure requirements and transparency in California’s elections.
read moreLooking back over the past year, the citizenry of California scored some wins in government accountability with upgrades like citizen redistricting and online voter registration. But the halls of state government are still being obscured by dark campaign money and shady legislating, such as the infamous gut-and-amend. Will 2013 be the Year of Transparency?
read moreThe States Project was created to provide non-partisan and reliable information on states’ financial health in an easily accessed and digestible manner.
read moreThe Northern California city hopes, by getting citizens to dig into the budget process, it will help restore trust and confidence in local government, boost citizen engagement and make the whole budget process more transparent.
read moreIn a time of scarce resources and looming bankruptcies, cities are increasingly turning to Big Data to become more efficient. Into this space is where civic startups are putting some Silicon Valley innovation and know-how into making government work better.
read moreAccording to a completely redesigned website showing wage and benefit data for public employees across California, at an average annual salary of over $100,000, Indian Wells city employees have the highest average wages compared to any city in the state.
read moreThe Associated Press, this week, reported exclusively that it had analyzed every vote cast during the 2012 session and discovered California Assembly members changed and added their votes to legislation more than 5,000 times.
read moreA government at your fingertips. That’s what leaders in the city and county of San Francisco hope with new legislation to strengthen the city by the bay’s landmark Open Data initiatives.
read moreHave you ever blown out a tire due to an unfixed pothole and angrily wondered how much your city’s public works department actually spends on street maintenance? Or received a parking ticket that made you speculate as to how much revenue your city collects annually from parking enforcement? If you live in Palo Alto, answers to these questions and more are now just a few mouse clicks away.
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