{"id":14578,"date":"2013-01-10T10:00:02","date_gmt":"2013-01-10T17:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=14578"},"modified":"2013-01-10T08:08:10","modified_gmt":"2013-01-10T15:08:10","slug":"idaho-launches-government-transparency-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2013\/01\/10\/idaho-launches-government-transparency-website\/","title":{"rendered":"Idaho Launches Government Transparency Website"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_14611\"  class=\"wp-caption module image center\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Transparency.Idaho.gov \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2013\/01\/Transparency-Website.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-14611\" title=\"Transparency Website\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2013\/01\/Transparency-Website-620x321.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"321\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2013\/01\/Transparency-Website-620x321.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2013\/01\/Transparency-Website-300x155.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2013\/01\/Transparency-Website.jpg 1674w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">State Controllers Office \/ State of Idaho<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Transparency.Idaho.gov<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In an effort to become more transparent, the state of Idaho has launched a <a href=\"http:\/\/transparent.idaho.gov\/Pages\/transhome.aspx#\" target=\"_blank\">new website<\/a> that details state spending and revenue. <a href=\"http:\/\/transparent.idaho.gov\/Pages\/transhome.aspx#\" target=\"_blank\">Transparent.Idaho.gov<\/a> was created by the state controller&#8217;s office, after the state continually received failing grades on its openness.<\/p>\n<p>Last year during &#8216;sunshine week,&#8217; <em>StateImpact Idaho<\/em> reported on two separate transparency report cards &#8212; one gave Idaho an &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/14\/f-is-for-flunk-idaho-falls-short-in-transparency-study\/\" target=\"_blank\">F<\/a>&#8220;, the other a &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/19\/idahos-among-the-worst-states-when-it-comes-to-government-transparency\/\" target=\"_blank\">D-<\/a>&#8220;.<\/p>\n<p>Then state controller&#8217;s office Chief of Staff Brandon Woolf said a transparency website had been a <a title=\"Update: \u201cF\u201d Is For \u201cFlunk,\u201d But Also For \u201cFunding\u201d\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/15\/update-f-is-for-flunk-but-also-for-funding\/\" target=\"_blank\">goal of the agency for the last six or more years<\/a>. Woolf is now State Controller, and he says those report cards were a bit of a breaking point in pushing for a transparency website.<!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/14\/f-is-for-flunk-idaho-falls-short-in-transparency-study\/\">&#8220;F&#8221; Is For &#8220;Flunk&#8221;: Idaho Falls Short In Transparency Study<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/15\/update-f-is-for-flunk-but-also-for-funding\/\">Update: &#8220;F&#8221; Is For &#8220;Flunk,&#8221; But Also For &#8220;Funding&#8221;<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/19\/idahos-among-the-worst-states-when-it-comes-to-government-transparency\/\">Idaho&#8217;s Among The Worst States When It Comes To Government Transparency<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><a href=\"\"><\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>Woolf wants the <a href=\"http:\/\/transparent.idaho.gov\/Pages\/transhome.aspx#\" target=\"_blank\">new site<\/a> to be considered a one-stop-shop for the public to find spending and revenue reports. This includes a breakdown of Idaho&#8217;s general fund, the federal funding Idaho receives, and how much the state spends on employees, travel, and benefits.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, Woolf said the biggest hurdle for creating this kind of a public resource was a lack of funding. \u201cThe governor put it into our budget this year, but it was pulled,\u201d Woolf <a title=\"Update: \u201cF\u201d Is For \u201cFlunk,\u201d But Also For \u201cFunding\u201d\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/15\/update-f-is-for-flunk-but-also-for-funding\/\">said in 2012<\/a>.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s trying to get blood out of a turnip.\u00a0 We realized there was no money over these recent years.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So, Woolf says, this new site didn&#8217;t require an additional appropriation. It was made in-house. &#8220;We realized there was no additional money in recent years,&#8221; says Woolf, &#8220;but this year we overcame the cost hurdle through contract negotiations with our data warehouse software vendor.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Idaho is one of the last states in the country to build a transparency website. Woolf says this is a starting point.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s the citizens&#8217; government, and it\u2019s the citizens&#8217; money,&#8221; Woolf says.\u00a0 &#8220;This will help them understand how their money is being spent.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Still, the majority of the information available on the new site is already public and in many cases online, it&#8217;s just spread across various state agency websites. This new website puts that available information all in one place.<\/p>\n<p>Over the last year the state controller&#8217;s office has worked with <a href=\"http:\/\/uspirg.org\/issues\/usp\/through-transparency-shaping-government-accountable-people\" target=\"_blank\">U.S. PIRG<\/a>, the organization that gave Idaho a failing grade for transparency last year. Scott Phillips, deputy state controller, says U.S. PIRG has been a valuable resource. &#8220;I can&#8217;t speak highly enough of their organization,&#8221; he says.<\/p>\n<p>Phillips adds Idaho&#8217;s new transparency website will be updated daily. It doesn&#8217;t yet include a real-time checkbook feature to see how the state is spending money, but it&#8217;s a goal to add that in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an effort to become more transparent, the state of Idaho has launched a new website that details state spending and revenue. Transparent.Idaho.gov was created by the state controller&#8217;s office, after the state continually received failing grades on its openness. Last year during &#8216;sunshine week,&#8217; StateImpact Idaho reported on two separate transparency report cards &#8212; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":14611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[145],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14578"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}