U.S. PIRG ranks states for offering online access to state budget data. How'd South Dakota score?
D+ for us. Our online state checkbook shows what we're spending and whom we're paying. You can search the database by vendor and by department. We get a zero in the "downloadable" category because the actual dollar figures are locked up in the PDF copies of contracts rather than being available in spreadsheet or database format so you could download the whole works and analyze dollars across departments. We get a ding in "Past Contracts" because the legislation mandating this website was only passed last year. Also worth noting: that statute only requires that contracts be kept online one year past the end of their term, meaning we can't rely on Open.SD.Gov for historical research in coming years, which could be somewhat important if it's, say, 2014 and we're trying to track patterns between campaign donations and vendors with whom the governor's office did business in 2011.
Our state financial website also includes the ever-popular employee salary database, where you can find out that employee #010001 has indeeed reduced his salary to $98,031.46. However, this payroll database is weak on searchability as well: you have to type in the exact name. For instance, to find employee #401012, son of #010001, you have to punch in Christopher, not just Chris, even though I've never heard anyone in press or in person refer to the PUC's new analyst by his full name. The database also won't generate lists: you can't do cool searches like everyone named Daugaard... or everyone named Chris, or every Ols*n working for the state, or everyone at DSU making over $80,000 (I can save you a little time: I'm definitely not on that list!).
But hey—at least we're not Maine. They got not just an F but a big fat zero, because they only let registered vendors riffle through their records.
Good governance requires good data. South Dakota's online transparency isn't awful, but we need more searchable databases online that will allow citizens and the press to scrutinize how we spend our tax dollars.
Bonus Name Game: U.S. PIRG has a senior analyst for tax and budget policy named Phineas Baxandall. Mark that name down as the coolest name I've heard all week. Say it: Phineas Baxandall... that's straight out of Jules Verne, or Isaac Asimov!