The State of California has found a way to save $270 million — without budget cuts or raising taxes.

State Treasurer John Chiang recently announced that his office had completed the sale of $1.93 billion in general obligation bonds, which will deliver hundreds of millions of dollars of savings to taxpayers. Like homeowners refinancing their mortgage, the overwhelming majority of funds were used to refinance approximately $1.54 billion of existing debt.

“I am very pleased at the result of this sale, which will save taxpayers such a substantial sum over the remaining life of the refinanced debt,” Chiang said in a press release announcing the bond financing deal. “Recent credit upgrades have increased the market’s confidence in the state’s credit worthiness and individual and institutional investors alike continued to demonstrate faith in California.”

Market volatility affects savings

Recent volatility in the stock market, according to Chiang’s office, made the substantial bond savings harder to achieve.

“This is a particularly favorable result, given the tremendous volatility in global equity and debt markets over the past several weeks,” he said. “In the face of this volatility, which saw unusual swings in bond yields, the issue met with good success.”

Earlier this summer, the state treasurer’s office announced that the state had made its final interest payments on the economic recovery bonds approved by voters in 2004.

According to KQED, the state had been paying more than “$1 million a day, every day, for 11 straight years.” Proposition 57, which was drafted at the behest of then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, adopted $14 billion in borrowing – with roughly $5 billion paid in interest payments and fees.

California’s improved credit rating

Ratings by the independent agencies affect the interest rates paid by the state, and in turn, how much it costs taxpayers to service billions of dollars worth of bond debt. The state’s credit rating for general obligation bonds varies with each of the three major credit ratings agencies.

In July, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services raised California’s grade for general obligation bonds from “A+” to the higher “AA-.” The upgrade was credited to the state’s swift action on the state budget. In late June, Brown signed a $115.4 billion spending plan less than a week after lawmakers approved an on-time budget.

S&P’s summer upgrade followed a February uptick from Fitch Ratings, which raised the State of California’s general obligation rating to “A+” from “A.” According to the State Treasurer’s office, Fitch welcomed the state’s “continued improvement in its fundamental fiscal position, institutionalized changes to its fiscal operations, and ongoing economic and revenue recovery” as motivation for its credit ratings upgrade.

Moody’s Investors Service, the final of the three major bond ratings agencies, classifies California with an “Aa3” rating. That rating has not changed since June 2014.

California’s Long-Term Debt Picture

As of August 2015, the state has roughly $155 billion in authorized bond debt. Of that amount, $77.4 billion in long term outstanding bond debt has already been issued.

However, the state’s total debt burden is much larger than its outstanding bond obligations. State officials peg the total state government debt at $263 billion, or 12 percent of the state’s $2.2 trillion gross domestic product. The much-maligned, debt-burdened nation of Greece, by comparison, had a debt to gross domestic product ratio of 177 percent – prior to this summer’s implementation of capital controls, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Although the state’s debt burden is nowhere close to Greece, some financial experts caution that deferred maintenance on infrastructure as well as unfunded health care and pension liabilities add to the state’s total debt – raising the debt ratio to 50 percent.

“Of course, the official numbers sit at the low end of the estimates,” argued the LA Times’ Jon Healey. “They leave out $66 billion in deferred maintenance on infrastructure, $31 billion worth of bonds that have been authorized but not yet issued and roughly $10 billion owed to the federal government for unemployment insurance benefits.”

“Even using these worst-case-scenario numbers, though, the state’s debt-to-GDP ratio is less than 50 percent, compared with 175 percent in Greece,” he wrote earlier this year.

The next state general obligation bond sale is expected to occur in October.

The state’s chief financial officer announced Monday a new open-data website that provides Californians with more than a decade’s worth of financial data for local governments.

The site, ByTheNumbers.sco.ca.gov, includes more than 13 million fields of financial data for 450 incorporated cities and 58 counties.

For example, click on: the 2013 City Revenues.

“We’re moving government accountability and transparency out of the analog dark ages into the digital era where information about how much your city or county is spending and borrowing is available with a keystroke,” Chiang said in a press release announcing the website’s launch. “By providing balance sheet details for every California municipality on one website and allowing users to slice and dice the information to spot trends and analyze spending, I hope to empower communities to become more involved in civic decision-making.”

Tool for citizen activists, government watchdogs

Since 1911, the Controller’s Office has been required by state law to track financial data and budget allocations for local government bodies. However, that important data largely has been kept away from meaningful public access — left in nearly unusuable paper documents.

The controller believes the new website will make it easier for citizens to look up data, download raw numbers, create charts and search for other financial data. Among the data at citizens’ fingertips: local government revenues, expenditures, liabilities, assets and even fund balances.

The immense amount of data will allow citizen activists and government watchdogs to peruse data for their hometown and, in turn, question how their government officials are spending public funds.

Praise from local governments

Even local government leaders, who will face increased scrutiny about their finances with the website’s creation, have praised the open-data effort.

“The State Controller’s new open-data website is a significant step in enhancing transparency in government at all levels,” said Matt Cate, executive director of the California State Association of Counties. “It provides the public with the tools to better understand and engage in our government process. We applaud the Controller for utilizing state-of-the-art technology to develop a tool that puts valuable public information right at the fingertips of our residents.”

That sentiment was echoed by his counterpart at the League of California Cities. “We commend the Controller for finding an effective way to make key city financial data much more accessible and useful to taxpayers and local agencies alike,” said Chris McKenzie, the LCC’s executive director.

Chiang’s open government track record

This isn’t the only open-data website published by the state controller.

Last December, CalWatchdog.com reported on the success of publicpay.ca.gov, which tracks public employee payroll data for hundreds of thousands of public employees in California. Chiang built that website with no additional state budget funds or expanded statutory authority. By comparison, it took 55 government contractors and $394 million in taxpayer funds to build President Obama’s online health-insurance marketplace.

In 2010, following the high-profile corruption case at the City of Bell, Chiang didn’t wait around for local governments to clean up their acts. He ordered cities, counties and special districts, under Government Code sections 12463 and 53892, to share salary and other wage information with his office. Initially, some local governments balked, then dragged their feet in disclosing the payroll data. In the years since, the State Controller’s office has boosted the compliance rate to 99 percent.

Taxpayers can expect more transparency. Later this fall, Chiang’s office plans to introduce further upgrades to the website that will provide data for each of California’s approximately 130 pension systems.

That pension data can’t come soon enough. This week, an audit by Chiang of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System found that taxpayers are responsible for nearly $800 million in obligations from “legal” pension spiking.

With more citizen watchdogs analyzing data provided by the controller’s office, taxpayers will be better positioned to combat pension abuses.

Treasurer’s race

Chiang, a Democrat, is term-limited out of the controller’s office and is running for state treasurer. His Republican opponent in November is Greg Conlon, an accountant and former president of the California Public Utilities Commission.

Conlon is campaigning to advance pro-growth tax strategies, reduce the state’s pension-fund debt and improve the state’s bond ratings.

The campaign to replace Chiang as controller pits Democrat Betty Yee, a member of the Board of Equalization, against Republican Ashley Swearengin, the mayor of Fresno.