MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kimberly Yee February 16, 2010 (602) 604-7882
(STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX) – State Treasurer Dean Martin today unveiled a new website to provide government transparency to taxpayers. The new website called AZCheckbook.com provides the daily status and monthly comparisons of the state’s operating cash balance.
“This website is the result of two years of work to provide the greatest level of transparency in Arizona history and is a reflection of my commitment to provide Arizona taxpayers with a searchable, user-friendly website that discloses all revenues and expenditures for Arizona State government,” said Treasurer Dean Martin. “For the first time in Arizona history, we are providing online to the public, in an easy to read and searchable format, the same data that is normally locked away and archived in arcane computer systems.”
AZCheckbook.com provides users with detailed information about how the State of Arizona is spending taxpayer money, and how much they are receiving from all sources, including the federal government. The checkbook data appears as it is recorded in the official state accounting system and will eventually become part of the Annual Financial Report for the State of Arizona. The spending data is captured each month from data collected and stored by the General Accounting Office of the Department of Administration. It will be updated each month as new spending data is available.
“This project has been a two-year labor of love by our staff and has been completed without any special appropriation or budget,” said Treasurer Dean Martin. “Finally, taxpayers will have Arizona’s checkbook at their fingertips. Now they can see exactly where their hard-earned money is being spent by the government.”
On AZCheckbook.com, the Treasurer’s Office will post complete accounting data as it is available each month. However, the Governor’s General Accounting Office would only provide historical data from previous years for a fee of $800 for each and every additional month’s balance requested.
“Unfortunately, we have no appropriation to pay nearly $10,000 per year for this information. We will continue to capture this data monthly going forward, but until the fee is waived or an appropriation provided, year over year comparisons will be limited to fiscal year 2009 and forward,” said Treasurer Dean Martin.
