Martha Stoddard, Omaha World-Herald
May 23, 2010

LINCOLN — The inscription over the main entrance to the Nebraska State Capitol counsels: “The Salvation of the State is Watchfulness in the Citizen.”

But a new national study concluded that watching the public purse isn't as easy in Nebraska and Iowa as in many other states.

Nebraska received a “D” and Iowa an “F” in the study for providing online access to government spending data.

Officials with both states said lack of money for website development kept them from ranking better.

“I don't think there's any effort to conceal information,” said Iowa State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald. “The biggest obstacle has been the cost.”

Nebraska Treasurer Shane Osborn said he would do more with the website he created if there was money to pay for it.

The current site was set up for $38,000 and is maintained by interns in his office. Some states spent 30 times that amount.

“I'm proud of the website,” Osborn said. “You have to look at bang for our buck.”

The U.S. PIRG Education Fund, which put out the report, said access to information about government spending is fundamental to democracy.

Transparency in spending issues “checks corruption, bolsters public confidence in government and promotes fiscal responsibility,” the group said.

The education fund is a nonprofit affiliate of the Boston-based U.S. PIRG, a federation of state public interest research groups.

The report put Iowa among 18 states labeled as “lagging” because it lacks a one-stop website to provide information about state and local government budgets, revenues, spending and more.

A spokesman for Iowa Gov. Chet Culver countered that information about the use of taxpayer dollars is available from various state agency websites.

The sites are scattered, however, and not easy for the average taxpayer to find.

Nebraska ranked better because of the site Osborn started in 2008.

Nebraskaspending.gov provides access to a variety of state and local government financial information.

But it doesn't offer the “comprehensive, one-stop, one-click budget accountability and accessibility” that the report calls for.

The Nebraska site scored poorly for its clunky searching ability, its limited information about current state contracts and its lack of historical information about contracts.

The report also faulted the site for having little information about tax subsidies and incentives for economic development.

The report said subsidy information is important because, once created, tax breaks and credits have the same effect on budgets as direct appropriations.

State Sen. Jeremy Nordquist of Omaha said the report offers a good framework for improving the site.

Nordquist co-sponsored legislation, which passed last year, assuring that future treasurers will continue the site and requiring it to be updated at least annually.

Osborn said he prefers to focus on what the site makes available now. He said the site has been popular, receiving 602,802 visits during the 12 months ending May 1.

The most frequently used parts of the site were databases of state expenditures, state agency budgets and state contracts.

Nebraskaspending.gov allows users to search state expenditures down to the checkbook level for fiscal year 2008-09.

People can see, for example, that Gov. Dave Heineman received a $4,832.87 paycheck in January 2009 and a $495 reimbursement for a conference registration in February.

They also can search state contracts by agency and contractor for calendar year 2008.

But they can't search either database by function. Users would have to know potential vendors and look up each one to find out what the state spends on printing, for example.

The site provides summary information about the cost of Nebraska's business tax incentives, showing that businesses qualified for $3,837,169 in new job and investment credits during 2008.

But it does not list the individual companies receiving incentives, even though that information is available on the Department of Revenue website.