Frequently Asked Questions
What is House Bill 2500 (forming the Transparency Web site)?
What information appears on the Transparency Web site?
How often will updates to the Transparency Web site occur?
Will this Web site expand in the future?
What information appears in the payroll data provided on this Web site?
What is the source of the data found on this Web site?
Whom should I contact if I have a question about the data on this Web site?
How do I sort a spreadsheet?
A: House Bill 2500, approved by the Legislature in 2009, directs the Department of Administrative Services to develop and make available the Oregon Transparency Web site which allows people to view information that is public record and not exempt from disclosure. To read requirements in the bill, click here.
A: The Oregon Transparency Web site contains information about each state agency, including but not limited to:
- Annual state agency revenues
- Annual state agency expenditures
- Annual state agency human resources expenses, including compensation
- Annual state agency tax expenditures
- State agency contracting and subcontracting information
- Pie charts showing primary revenue sources for each agency
- Descriptions of the mission, function and program categories of each agency
- Copies of audit reports issued by the Secretary of State
Note: New for the 2011 update, Oregon.gov/Transparency now contains information related to Education Service Districts (ESD), County Expenditures of State Lottery Funds, and Public Meeting Notices as well as enhanced reporting on Tax Expenditures.
Additional information will be added when it is available.
A: Unless otherwise specified, data on the Transparency Web site is current as of June 30, 2011. The state will update data on an annual basis -- likely, by January of each year.
A: Yes. We will continue to evaluate the content of the Web site and include additional information as needed.
A: For state employees, annual salaries listed on this Web site are twelve times the employee's monthly adjusted salary rate as of June 30, 2011. "Annual Salary" includes most differential payments (such as work-out-of-classification and bilingual differential) but excludes payments for overtime, shift differential, benefits, and vacation payout. The report does not account for unpaid furlough leave management employees took in fiscal year 2010-2011, or step decreases and unpaid furlough leave some classified employees began taking after June 2009.
For Oregon University System employees, reported salaries are current as of June 30, 2011. The data reflect annual salary rates based on assigned primary duties and work effort at that time. The report does not include payment for overtime, shift differential, benefits, vacation payout, etc. The salary data may not reconcile to a full-time annualized salary rate or actual wages paid due to fluctuations in work effort, number of months worked in a year, and terms and conditions of employment that change over time.
For Education Service Districts (ESD), in order to represent the information as accurately as possible, a number of files reflect the actual salary paid to an individual for the Fiscal Year 2011. These files do exclude benefits and vacation payouts, however.
A: The funding, expenditure and payroll information on this Web site are based on transactions recorded by state entities (agencies, boards, commissions, etc.) on systems housed in Department of Administrative Services within the State Controller's Division, Human Resource Services Division, State Services Division and Budget and Management Division.
For Education Service Districts, the funding, expenditure and payroll information on this Web site are based on transactions recorded by Education Service Districts' systems.
Existing documents on the Legislative Web site, Secretary of State Web site, and other agency Web sites are also relied upon heavily.
A: If you have a question about a particular transaction, please contact the appropriate agency directly (click here for directory). Please note that response time will vary according to the number of inquiries that agencies receive.
In some cases, the most appropriate agency point of contact is provided in the area of the webpage that contains the information.
For questions about the the County Lottery Fund Expenditures Transparency page, please contact Cara Fischer, Deputy Executive Director for the Association of Oregon Counties.
For questions about the Education Service Districts Transparency Page, please contact Jim Mabbot , Executive Director for the Oregon Association of Education Service Districts.
If you have questions, comments or suggestions about this Web site, you may e-mail them to oregon.transparency@state.or.us. We appreciate your thoughts and interest about this Web site.
A: Sometimes a file on the Web site may not open in a spreadsheet program (e.g., Excel). If this happens, save the file to your computer and open it in your own spreadsheet program. Select the rows of data you want to sort, followed by selecting columns to sort by. You may save changes to your own computer. You will not be allowed to save changes to the Web site.
