Legislators are committed to using your hard-earned tax dollars responsibly on initiatives that ensure Iowa’s working families and small businesses can get ahead. That’s especially true in tight budget times.
Iowa is one of the top 10 states for government accountability, according to the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. The organization’s annual Follow the Money report measures how transparent states are about their spending.
As a leader in state government transparency and accountability, Iowa has created a user-friendly website at http://data.iowa.gov, which allows you to search spending by department, program, vendor or expense category, and to quickly filter data to find what you’re looking for.
In 2015 alone, the budget and other government data on Iowa’s transparency site were viewed or downloaded 77,726 times, delivering detailed information on initiatives to create jobs, grow the economy and expand worker training.
We want you to know where your money is going and what it’s accomplishing. That’s why we continue to make state government more accountable and transparent.
This year, we added to Iowa’s taxpayer accountability measures by:
- Having the Legislative Tax Expenditure Committee review additional tax credits (HF 2459).
- Investing in technology that improves public access to government information (SF 2324), including:
- Searchable Online Budget & Tax Database
- Electronic Grants Management System
- Voter Registration Systems
- Statewide Education Data Warehouse
- Protecting the state’s Road Use Fund to ensure money goes toward much-needed work on roads and bridges (HF 2464).
- Requiring county engineers to report on the use of road funding to replace or repair county bridges (HF 2345).
- Ensuring state agencies spend money as intended for infrastructure projects (SF 2324).