December 2, 2011
From: Paul Toner, MTA President
Open Checkbook website to launch
Under a government transparency initiative included in the 2011 state budget, the Commonwealth will be launching a new website by the end of the year providing detailed information about state expenditures, including state employees’ salaries and retirees’ pensions.
The initiative, called Open Checkbook, will provide information on all state budget expenditures, including payroll and pension information, for fiscal years, 2010, 2011 and 2012. While salary information is just for state employees, pension information will be available for all who receive retirement income under a pension system funded by the state, including retired teachers and administrators receiving pensions through the Massachusetts Teachers Retirement System.
A great deal of public employee salary and pension information has been available for several years on websites operated by the Boston Herald and the Pioneer Institute. These organizations obtained the information through public records requests.
The Commonwealth has posted answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the Open Checkbook initiative (The info there as of Dec 4 2011 is posted below). The FAQ explains that state employee annual salaries and retiree annual pensions will be available by name and will include information about where the person is or was employed. It will not include the individual’s address, bank account information or Social Security number.
For more information on this and other state transparency initiatives, see mass.gov/transparency . Active employees who have unanswered questions should contact their human resource offices. PreK-12 retirees who have unanswered questions may contact the Massachusetts Teachers Retirement System Employee Frequently Asked Questions about the Open Checkbook
Q. Why is the Commonwealth posting my salary? Q. What employee information will be displayed? Q. What other personnel information are you adding to the website in the future? Q. Will my bank account information, address or Social Security Number be displayed? Q. Will employee reimbursements that I have received be listed? Q. I have requested that my information be suppressed under the Commonwealth’s exclusions policy. Will I be included in the Open Checkbook listing? Q. Can public safety staff be exempt from the list? Q. I am a student on federal work study. Will I be listed in the Open Checkbook? Q. I don’t want my information listed but I don’t qualify for an exemption. Is there an opportunity to appeal? Q. If I need employment verification for my apartment or a bank, will my state agency still respond to information requests or does the group that needs to verify this number need to just use the Open Checkbook website? Q. Will Worker’s Compensation payments be included? Q. Will the payout in connection with settlement agreements be identified? Questions Post-Release Q. I’m on the list even though I am on a leave of absence, workers’ comp, or left employment recently. How can I be removed? Q. My title is wrong – how can I get this fixed? Q. My middle initial is missing or is shown and I don’t want it to be – how can I get this changed? Q. My last name changed recently but it is wrong on the list – how can I get this fixed? Q. I am part-time or contractor but it is showing an annual salary which is overstated. How can I get that fixed? Q. Why is the information on another site such as the Boston Herald or Pioneer Institute different than the listing here?
A. Chapter 7, section 14C of the General Laws requires that a searchable online database of state spending be established. The Open Checkbook was developed to display the public records to meet that requirement.
A. For each employee, their name, title, department, current salary, and total amounts paid in 2010 and 2011, and soon to be 2012, will be displayed. Nothing further will be available online.
A. There are no specific plans to expand the details provided.
A. No. Those are examples of protected personal information. That data is not anywhere in the Open Checkbook database.
A. No. Employee reimbursements will not be tied to individual employees, but will eventually be summarized by department in the Spending by Department section.
A. No. We are maintaining exclusions currently in place for general public records requests under the policy.
A. No. There is no legal exemption for excluding the name of public safety employees from public records requests.
A. No. Students on federal work study are protected under federal law. Students who have other campus jobs during winter and summer breaks will be included in the listing.
A. Since state employee payroll information is a public record, no appeals are allowed beyond those outlined in the exemption policy.
A. Your state agency should still confirm continued employment since the website simply displays past payments.
A. No. Worker’s compensation payments, including violence pay, will not be included.
A. No. Settlement agreements are excluded from the Open Checkbook.
A. The list is designed to show all state or contract employees who received a paycheck during the calendar year, regardless of whether they are still being paid.
A. Contact your human resources office to get this changed in the payroll system and it will be fixed within a few weeks on the website when the data is refreshed. The title is taken from the title for your position.
A. Contact your human resources office to get this changed in the payroll system and it will be fixed within a few weeks once the data on the website is refreshed.
A. Contact your human resources office to get this changed in the payroll system and it will be fixed within a few weeks once the data on the website is refreshed.
A. The payroll system includes a field that calculates annual salary based on your hourly rate and standard work hours. Those fields likely need to be adjusted. Please contact your human resources office to review the entries in those fields and make updates as needed. The salary will be updated within a few weeks, once the data for the website has been refreshed.