Center for Fiscal Accountability

Americans for Tax Reform and the Center for Fiscal Accountability Applaud the Launch of the Utah Public Finance Website


WASHINGTON D.C. – Today, Americans for Tax Reform and its Center for Fiscal
Accountability applaud the launch of the Utah Public Finance Portal, transparent.utah.gov. By giving Utahans access to their state’s finances, the portal
empowers citizens to become true fiscal watchdogs of their state.

The website is a result of a legislative effort led by Senator Wayne Niederhauser and
allows taxpayers to access data on Utah state spending. Visitors can drill down from
several categories of spending to find exact expenditures which are accessible in a print format and exportable to pdf documents.

“On the behalf of taxpayers everywhere, I congratulate the state of Utah for taking such an important step on the road to government accountability,” said Grover Norquist,
president of Americans for Tax Reform, “As taxpayers fund every state expense, they
deserve to know whether those expenditures are good investments of their hard-earned
tax dollars.”

With the launch of its sight, Utah becomes the first state in the nation to require localities to provide expenditure data, providing taxpayers another level of transparency in their government. The local information will be available by May 15, 2010. Allowing Utahans greater scrutiny of their state’s spending can reduce waste, fraud and abuse while transforming the relationship between the state and its people.

“Thomas Jefferson once said: ‘We might hope to see the finances of the Union as clear
and intelligible as a merchant’s books, so that every members of Congress and every man
of any kind in the Union should be able to comprehend them, to investigate abuses, and
consequently to control them,’” said Center for Fiscal Accountability Executive Director Sandra Fabry. “The Utah Public Finance Website is a great model for other states to imitate in making state and local spending information available to taxpayers in a comprehensive and user-friendly format.”