Transparency: State of Illinois Comptroller Releases Comprehensive Financial Database
From the Comptroller’s Office News Release:
llinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka on Monday unveiled The Ledger, a comprehensive online financial database that sets a new standard for transparency. In fact, the site provides taxpayers with the same up-to-date numbers and information that is used by Topinka’s office in carrying out its Constitutional duties.
Launched Monday, The Ledger allows taxpayers to click their way through everything from the state’s daily receipts and bill backlog numbers to state agency budgets and expenses. The site also provides a state employee database, allowing taxpayers to view all public salaries and recent additions to Illinois’ payroll.
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To further assist taxpayers, information on the site is available for download, meaning site visitors can immediately generate a hard copy of everything from state agency budgets to employee salary listings. Specifically, the site provides:
- Daily General Funds balances and bond rating information
- Unpaid bill totals on file at the Comptroller’s Office
- State contract database providing agreement descriptions, with an option to obtain the document itself
- State salary database detailing payments to all public employees
- Revenue and expense database containing all transactions
- All state financial reports
- Automatically-generated Freedom of Information request for additional information
Direct to The Ledger Database
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.