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In 2006, President George W. Bush signed into law the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, a bill that created a searchable online database that can be easily used by the public to research federal grant and contract expenditures in excess of $25,000. Now, with the click of a mouse, citizens are able to track where federal their tax dollars are spent.

Following the passage of this legislation, state governments across the country began creating similar databases for their own expenditures. As a result, taxpayers in nearly a dozen states have the ability to search and sort millions of dollars in spending. Passage of the Alaska Open Government Act would add Alaska to that growing list of states and could bring our government into a new age of accountability. Although Governor Palin recently created the "Checkbook Online" spending website by executive order, we need to make this great project a part of permanent law.

SB 201 would bring transparency to Juneau by creating a Web site similar to that of the federal government. The site would contain detailed information on how the state is spending your tax dollars, the purpose of such outlays, and what person or organization is receiving those funds.