NJ Launches new state spending transparency website

by: Rosi Efthim

Fri Jan 15, 2010 at 11:11:00 AM EST

But New Jersey's new website, headlined Transparency in Government: NJ Online Checkbook and credited back to the state's "Transparency Resources" Department, is a very good idea. You do have to laugh that it comes at the tail end of the Corzine years, and just in time to monitor his successor's spending, but the website does reach back deep into the Corzine years to account for spending over the last 7 years. The site went public yesterday. Corzine:

This is a common-sense measure that enables the citizens of New Jersey to be fully appraised of how taxpayer funds are spent

And yes, I'm just playing with it for the first time, but it does appear to be just that. You can, for example do a search on spending by NJ agency, going back 7 years and for example, seeing a detailed analysis by department and budget line for how the Department of Agriculture - or any state agency - has spent your money over the last 7 years. You can also view a Revenue Summary by Agency by fiscal year. Searching can be done across state departments, or by isolating individual departments. Spending summaries can also be viewed by account type.  The site is free, and it looks pretty easy to use.

Has anybody been playing with this since it launched. Any feedback? Find anything yet that it doesn't tell you, but should?