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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Myorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Website "Window" into AZ Government Spending?

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Thursday, September 3, 2009   

Phoenix, AZ - A searchable public database of Arizona's state budget is still more than a year away, but a citizen's group is urging that the state become a leader in the national movement toward government transparency, and a new report details how that can happen. By law, Arizona state government must establish a public Web site revealing down to the last penny how it spends taxpayer money.

The Web site is getting kudos from Diane Brown, director of the Arizona Public Interest Research Group, (PIRG). She says it's fundamental to democracy for people to know how their taxes are being spent.

"This will allow them to be able to look at where their taxpayer money is going and how efficient and effective state government is with their taxpayer dollars."

Arizona can be a national transparency leader by adopting several "best practices" detailed in a new report from the PIRG Education Fund, says Brown.

"It will be a one-stop Web site that citizens can use to search all government expenditures. It will be comprehensive, including subsidies and contracts with private parties, and it will be one-click searchable."

Brown says the new system will help both the public and government decision-makers responsible for spending.

"One of the things that we believe will happen is that we can look at contracts in the state and see where they're being awarded, and see if there are bidders that might be able to do a service just as effectively and efficiently, but doesn't cost as much."

The database should also integrate campaign finance and lobbyist information to ensure that state contracts are not awarded as a reward or political favor. Arizona is one of more than 25 states in the growing "transparency" movement, which requires that citizens be able to access a searchable online database of government expenditures.




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