State wants to reveal where your taxes go

By Ed Sealover, The Gazette

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

It happens a lot. You figure out your taxes, write a check and grumble: "What on earth does the government plan to do with this?"

Colorado Treasurer Cary Kennedy soon may have an answer for you.

Kennedy is working on an interactive program that would allow residents to punch in the tax bracket their family occupies and then it would answer a few questions. It would spit out a report detailing what they pay in taxes and what services that money buys.

Treasurer's staffers are developing formulas and have set no date for when the program - the first of its kind nationwide - will be ready. It should be able to specify to the dollar the amount that taxpayers are providing for services such as K-12 education, parks and public safety, Kennedy told the legislature's Joint Budget Committee on Wednesday.

"We would be at the forefront of this effort of really trying to shine a light on state finances," Kennedy said.

The first-year Democratic treasurer went to the JBC, the committee that crafts the state budget, to ask for $45,000 to implement the project in the fiscal year that runs from July 2008 through June 2009. The money would cover consulting costs, build-out and maintenance of the Web site, as well as publication of a report as part of her government transparency effort.

The JBC will not make a decision on the funding until early next year, but the smiles of Democratic and GOP committee members left little doubt how they felt.

"The more people understand their government and what it does, the more they support it," said Colorado Springs Democratic Sen. John Morse.