Testimony: SB 504 transparency good but current text too broad in scope

Jennifer Allmon
Executive Director of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops

I am testifying on SB 504.

We thank Senator Kolkhorst for her commitment to transparency for tax funds distributed to non-profit entities in Texas. We believe that there should be transparency and accountability for the stewardship of tax dollars whether these dollars are spent directly by government agencies or in public-private partnerships such as grants or contracted services.  We believe that is the spirit of SB 504.

We do have some concerns that the bill is more broad than is necessary and may result in some unintended consequences for organizations with grants for some, but not all of the services the non-profit delivers in the community.

Assuming that the median salary of non-profits is comparable to that of the state, you could assume that the salaries of approximately half of the staff of some non-profits would be posted online, including those in programs and locations beyond the scope of the government contract and including staff who are fully funded through private dollars.

It would be more reasonable to include only those salaries that are being funded or partially funded through the political subdivision.

We have no objection to sharing salary information with contractors, but do have some concerns about public posting of private salary information for non-profit staff and how such posting would impact human resources issues for non-profits.

Again, we applaud Senator Kolkhorst for her seeking to improve transparency in government contracts and hope that these adjustments would be acceptable in a potential committee substitute.