A day after Los Angeles City Controller Wendy Greuel announced she would post the salaries of city workers and officials online, state controller John Chiang said he would do the same for all municipalities and counties in California.

In a statement Chiang ordered all cities and counties to “clearly identify elected officials and public employees' compensation. The information will be posted on the Controller's website, starting in November.”

The moves follow the scandal in Bell, where a city manager was found to have been earning $800,000 a year, nearly twice what the President of the United States makes, and the part-time City Council was taking home $100,000 annually per member.

“The absence of transparency is a breeding ground for waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars,” Chiang stated. “A single website with accessible information will make sure that excessive pay is no longer able to escape public scrutiny and accountability.”

While Greuel ordered her staff to start building the city salary website immediately, Chiang said the statewide data wouldn't go up until November, with a deadline for filing the information with his office in October. If local governments don't comply they could face a penalty of up to $5,000, which doesn't seem like much if they're hiding Bell-like salaries.

One question: What about state salaries?

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