Open the state checkbook

On Feb.18, State Auditor Cynthia Cloud made us refile our open records request for the state checkbook and then charged us $8,000 in fees. But production has been slow. At this pace, we’ll receive all the records by 2048.

Why would it take 30 years to produce just five years of state spending?

Wyoming receives an “F” in transparency from the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C. This should be embarrassing for Wyoming elected officials. It shouldn’t take a search warrant, subpoena, or litigation to force open the state checkbook expenditures. Citizens deserve the right to follow their tax dollars.

Our organization at OpenTheBooks.com vowed to move Wyoming’s grade from an “F” to an “A.” However, we’ve received a lot of resistance from the state auditor – the office responsible for cutting the checks and paying the bills.

Twice, Cloud won statewide election with 99 percent of the vote after promising transparency and accountability in Cheyenne. Contrary to these political promises, her office rejected our open record requests for a line-by-line state checkbook for three straight years (2015, 2016, and 2017).

In January, we threatened litigation. Our demand letter was published on the front page of the Sunday newspaper at the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. This caused the auditor’s office to drop their public objections. Instead, they invoiced us for nearly $8,000. With the help of the Equality State Taxpayers’ Association based in Wyoming and their chairman Bill Doenz, we paid the draconian fee.

Now, it’s been 15 weeks since we filed our newest request for the state checkbook. We demanded record production on a rolling basis. So far, we’ve received just 12 days of state spending records. At this rate, it’ll take 30 years to receive all the records we paid for (1,300 days).

We’re concerned the office of state auditor – whose job it is to stop waste, fraud, corruption and taxpayer abuse – is behaving in violation of transparency laws. The state constitution, the federal constitution, and existing Wyoming law all support our effort to capture a complete record of public spending in Wyoming. In fact, we’ve collected data from 227 individual units of Wyoming government during the past year, including the University of Wyoming.

Over the past three years, Cloud and Deputy State Auditor Sandy Urbanek made some ridiculous claims to hide state spending. Here are just a few of those claims:

It’s an “undue burden.” False. The auditor argues on her website that transparency is a top priority of her office. Well, a top priority can’t be an undue burden.

It’ll take “years and years” for checkbook production. False. In 2016, we found the auditor’s office contracted for a $63-million accounting software package. How fast do you think this software can produce a basic line-by-line checkbook?

It’s “private information.” False. The addresses of state vendors are not private information as initially claimed by the auditor. Government vendor data is public information in all 50 states and at the federal level.

The records are “purged.” False. When we narrowed our checkbook request to what’s posted on the auditor’s ‘transparency’ website, she rejected the request saying the records were purged. Really, wouldn’t that violate Wyoming record destruction statutes?

At one point, the attorney general and state auditor wrongly argued that providing state public employee salaries was an “undue burden.” Thankfully, Governor Matt Mead’s administration had already produced 10,000 state employee salaries in less than two weeks and without any fees.

Wyoming politicians should be reminded that transparency has a foundational basis in the Appropriations Clause of the U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 9 which states:

“… a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.”

Slow-walking records subject to open records statutes raises troubling questions for Wyoming taxpayers. Just what is hidden inside the Wyoming state checkbook? We are fighting to get you a speedy answer.

Adam Andrzejewski is the CEO and Founder of OpenTheBooks.com – one of the largest private databases of government spending in the world.