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.
Hello, can you please post some more information on this topic? I would like to read more.
Please let me know how Utah’s students school supplies are paid for. Is it included in your school tax? What is the average Utah school tax?
Utah’s public education system is funded by a combination of federal, state and local dollars. Under the Utah Constitution, all income tax revenue must pay for public and higher education. In addition, local school districts have a variety of property tax levies they can impose. On average, 56 percent of Utah property taxes pay go to public education.
You can find more specific information, including break downs by district, in our annual school spending report and our annual property tax report. Both of those reports are available on our website under the drop down menu, “Research.”
A flat tax of 11% of ALL Americans would bring in more money to the government that they are bringing in today – but of course we would tick off a ton of liberals who now reside in their parents’ basements. But at this point if something is not done to reign in spending and taxes we will all be living there.