Transparent Nevada is not a government website. Here's who built it, why it exists, and why Nevada residents deserve free access to public employee compensation data.
If you landed on Transparent Nevada for the first time and wondered whether this is an official government website, you're not alone. The name sounds authoritative. The data comes from government agencies. But Transparent Nevada is not run by the state.
So who is behind it, and why does it exist?
Transparent Nevada is a project of the Nevada Policy, a free-market policy research and advocacy organization. Nevada Policy has been working to advance limited government and individual liberty in Nevada since 1991. Transparent Nevada is one of the most direct expressions of that mission: if taxpayers are going to fund government, they should be able to see exactly how that money is spent.
The platform launched years ago as a simple salary database and has grown into one of the most comprehensive sources of public employee compensation data in the state, with millions of records spanning salaries, pensions, and benefits across every major government agency in Nevada.
Government employee salaries and pensions are paid by taxpayers. That simple fact is the entire foundation of why this information is public.
Nevada law requires government agencies to disclose employee compensation when it is requested through the public records process. Nevada Policy submits those requests, receives the data, cleans and organizes it, and publishes it in a searchable format so that any Nevada resident can access it for free without having to file their own records request or navigate government bureaucracy.
Without a resource like Transparent Nevada, this data would still technically be "public" but practically inaccessible to most people. Getting it would require knowing exactly which agency to contact, submitting a formal written request, waiting weeks for a response, and possibly paying fees for staff time to fulfill it. Transparent Nevada does that work so you do not have to.
Transparent Nevada is used by a wide range of people for a wide range of reasons:
Journalists use it to investigate stories about government spending, executive pay at public agencies, and pension costs that fall on future budgets.
Researchers and policy analysts use it to study compensation trends across agencies and compare Nevada to national benchmarks.
Taxpayers and voters use it to understand how their local school district, city, or county is spending public money.
Transparent Nevada is not a tool for harassment. The data it publishes is the same data that government agencies are legally required to disclose. Publishing it in a searchable format does not change its legal status. It simply makes accountability more accessible.
Transparent Nevada does not publish personal information like home addresses, Social Security numbers, or any data that is not part of official payroll and pension disclosures.
Nevada's state and local governments employ tens of thousands of people. Their combined compensation represents billions of dollars in annual spending, plus long-term pension obligations that will shape the state's fiscal picture for decades.
Transparent Nevada exists because an informed public is the most powerful check on government excess. When residents can see what their government costs, they can ask better questions, make better decisions at the ballot box, and hold elected officials accountable for the choices they make with public money.
That is the entire mission. No more, no less.
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