Members of the transparency advisory board Brenda Lee, John Reidhead, Steve Fletcher, Taxpayers Association Vice President Royce Van Tassle, Sen. Wayne Neiderhauser, and stan Rasmussen of the Sutherland Institute.
Transparency Website Unveiled
Utah taxpayers have a new tool to hold state government accountable. Thanks to the Utah Legislature and Senator Wayne Niederhauser, sponsor of the transparency in government spending legislation, Utah now has the nation’s best transparency website, transparent.utah.gov
With this new website, anyone can see how Utah spends every taxpayer dollar. From reimbursements to out of state travel to paid leave, transparent.utah.gov lets everyone see the state’s check register. With this powerful tool, taxpayers can easily look for waste, fraud and abuse in state spending, thereby restrain the growth in state government.
As more people scrutinize how the state is spending taxpayer dollars, taxpayers will be better protected. Already Utah’s transparency website has show its merit. Just three days after the website went live, data from transparent.utah.gov showed that Utah has spent nearly a quarter of a million dollars on bottled water.
Despite fierce opposition from local governments when transparency in government was first enacted by the Legislature, Utah’s cities, counties, school districts, transit districts, etc. will be providing their finances online within the next two years.
Screen shot from the website
As local governments come online, taxpayers will have tremendous resources to review proposed budgets, prepare for Truth-in-Taxation hearings, and hold their local leaders accountable.
The tools are coming online, and your Taxpayers Association is watching carefully. Let’s all get out there and protect taxpayer dollars.