Rep. Robin Vos
(608) 266 9171

Madison…Wisconsin taxpayers may soon be able to monitor much more closely how the state spends their money thanks to a bipartisan proposal passed today by the State Assembly by a strong bi-partisan vote of 81-16. Assembly Bill 862 is authored by Rep. Robin Vos (R-Caledonia), Rep. Bill Kramer (R-Waukesha) and Senator Robert Wirch D-Kenosha). The bill – named the Government Checkbook Disclosure Act – would require the Department of Administration to create a website where citizens can view all state expenditures over $100.

“The only way to reign in the monstrous spending habits of government is to make the spenders accountable to the people,” said Vos. “Politicians in Madison will think twice about big spending projects when they know Wisconsin taxpayers are paying attention to where their money is going.”

The idea for the website is modeled after the bipartisan Federal Funding and Accountability Transparency Act – written by Senators Barack Obama(D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK). This website allows citizens to monitor contract activity at the federal level. It can be found at www.usaspending.gov

Because of the popularity and wide bipartisan support of this idea by such divergent groups as Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform and Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen, many states have followed suit and created state-based transparency websites.

The website will serve as a one-stop-shop where taxpayers can view expenditures made by every state agency. It will make available terms and recipients of contracts and grants, salary and benefit information and digitized copies of checks written by agencies for anything over $100.

The proposal now goes to the State Senate for their consideration.

Vos continued: “If people on opposite sides of the spectrum like Ralph Nader and Grover Norquist can agree that disclosure is a good idea, and with such a wide bi-partisan vote, I am hopeful that the State Senate will take up this good government measure before they adjourn their session.”