PRESS RELEASE
Treasurer Fitzpatrick Expands Show-Me Checkbook to Include Local Governments
Jefferson City, MO – As part of
his ongoing commitment to ensuring a more efficient and transparent government,
Missouri State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick today announced the expansion of the
Show-Me Checkbook to include local governments. The Show-Me Checkbook,
launched by the Treasurer’s Office in 2018, is one of the most comprehensive state
financial data portals in the country.
Today,
spending data from six local governments, Cass County, Clay County, Cole County,
Jasper County, Newton County, and the City of St. Louis, can be searched, with
16 additional counties in progress. The Office will expand the number of
counties as the data becomes available. These six government entities provide
information about individual local government expenditures totaling more than
$921 million in 2019 alone. Visitors to the Checkbook can examine expenditure
data detailing funds, departments, vendors, payment descriptions, and totals
for the available government entities.
“Missourians should be able to
trust that their government is working for them and that their tax dollars are
being spent wisely,” Treasurer Fitzpatrick said. “With record numbers of
Missourians quarantining at home, now is the perfect time to go online and see
how counties are using our tax dollars. I am grateful to the government
entities that have agreed to provide their data for this portal—and look
forward to continuing to grow and expand the Show-Me Checkbook as we strive to
increase transparency, provide more accountability, and build trust in
communities.”
“This expansion provides
Missouri citizens access to information that, for many counties, has previously
been unavailable without a sunshine request,” Mark Maassen, Executive Director Missouri
Press Association, said. “This is a big step forward when it comes to
transparency for local governments and we applaud Treasurer Fitzpatrick’s action
to make this important financial data more readily available.”
“The Treasurer's new local
transparency portal is an important advancement and addition to Missouri's
growing open government portfolio,” Patrick Ishmael, Show-Me Institute Director
of Government Accountability, said. “Local governments in Missouri spend billions of
dollars each year, and yet they get only a fraction of the attention that
federal and state spending receive. That needs to change. If government can
take your money, it should be able to tell you where that money went.”
You can view the new Local
Governments section of the Show-Me Checkbook here.
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