An anonymous Web site out of Dallas-Fort Worth has compiled a batch of public servant salaries around the state including Houston, noted in the Pegasus News.

The site, DFWsalaries.com, delivers info by year for DFW, Houston and Austin, including the suburbs of each city, all compiled by a 2009 University of North Texas grad.

The site's search options set it apart. An inquiring mind can find out what Austin pays its administrative assistants in the aviation department without having a name, allowing salary comparisons between the cities, similar to the way Texas Tribune's database allows for state employees.T exas Watchdog also has state salaries available.

Speaking in the context of the U.S., Texas is a good place to access public records.

You generally don’t have to deal with an attorney general who attaches outlandish costs to records he doesn’t want to reveal, as folks do in Michigan, which is debatably among the least transparent states in the nation.

But you also can’t generally obtain the day’s police reports online as you can in some parts of Florida, where law enforcement seems to have gotten the "openness is good" memo.

As the person behind DFWsalaries.com shows, any person in Texas can make an inroad toward keeping the public wages of government employees available and open to the taxpayers who pay them.

Contact Steve Miller at 832-303-9420 or stevemiller@texaswatchdog.org.