(Updated 11/11) The
City of Albuquerque ,
Governor Susana Martinez , and
Albuquerque Public Schools all announced recently that their respective sunshine portals will include a complete list of agency employees, with names, titles and salaries. Even the
University of New Mexico is moving in that direction. Bravo! This information has been public for decades, but it has been socked away in government HR files, inconvenient for the average citizen to locate and search. Why should salaries be open? Aside from the basic fact that it's taxpayer money, transparent salaries can expose and prevent inequities in hiring and compensation. (How many news stories have we seen about nepotism and political favoritism in New Mexico? A lot.) The Albuquerque Journal
carried a story recently that suggests what can happen when secrecy surrounds government payroll.