Georgia Senate: School financial transparency bill passes, with strings attached
For the second year in a row, the Georgia Senate has passed a financial transparency mandate for schools that came from the House of Representatives.
House Bill 139 requires the state Department of Education to collect and publish prominently on its website the expenses at every school, including those for salaries, construction and maintenance. The information must include a searchable and sortable database of per pupil costs, which would allow easy comparison of schools.
The bill by a Lake Oconee area lawmaker passed 51-0 and would have gone straight to Gov. Nathan Deal for his signature had the Senate not altered the bill.
Sen. Hunter Hill, R-Atlanta, asked for and got an unrelated amendment on the Senate floor about tracking the performance data of students of parents in the military or National Guard.
Last year, Deal vetoed House Bill 659, a similar financial transparency bill by the same primary author, Rep. Dave Belton, R-Buckhead.
Deal explained his veto saying he liked the transparency requirement at the core of the bill but opposed an unrelated amendment that was tacked on during the legislative process.
About the Author
Ty Tagami is a staff writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Since joining the newspaper in 2002, he has written about everything from hurricanes to homelessness. He has deep experience covering local government and education, and can often be found under the Gold Dome when lawmakers meet or in a school somewhere in the state.
