Tax dollars- down to the agency, person and penny
24 September, 2008
“We want to show Maine taxpayers — down to the agency, person and penny — where their dollars go. How can you get the most bang for the taxpayer’s buck?” Tarren Bragdon of the Maine Heritage Policy Center explained to the Bangor Daily News as the reason for launching a new website, MaineOpenGov.org.
The state of Maine paid more money in overtime than it did in salary in 2007 to a nurse at the Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center in Bangor.
A civil engineer with the Maine Department of Transportation racked up $16,000 in mileage reimbursements.
And the state of Maine spent $80,980 on bottled water.
If you’ve ever wondered where your tax dollars are going, the brand new MaineOpenGov.org Web site is for you. The site offers searchable databases of public information, including the payrolls of state employees, University of Maine System employees and money spent on goods, services and entertainment.
I had the opportunity to sit through a sneak peek presentation of this site and its sister site, See Through New York, a few weeks ago at a conference in Phoenix, and am thrilled that I now get a chance to toy with the numbers myself.
Congratulations to the Maine Heritage Policy Center for a great tool in the battle against government waste.
