Carter County has become one of a dozen in the state to join a program that seeks to provide more transparency in how state tax dollars are spent.
The effort, Show-Me Checkbook, is a website created in 2018 with the goal of making it easier for Missourians to see where money goes, according to officials.
Carter County Clerk Leona Stephens believes that the availability of this information is a bonus for residents.
“It takes the information from all the counties who are willing to participate and puts it in one location for citizens to easily access versus having to go to each individual county, who may or may not have stuff electronically filed,” Stephens said.
It’s easier for residents to gather the information they’re interested in, she feels.
“On a county level, this is not new information,” Stephens said. “This is information that we’ve always provided. It’s just a little easier for people to access (the information) and if all the counties would participate, then all the information would be in one location.”
It’s a lot easier for people to have some idea of where money comes from and goes, and for how to get more money into a county, she said.
“I think it’s I think it’s a good tool,” Stephens said.
The information can be found at https://treasurer.mo.gov/ShowMeCheckbook/localgovernment.
According to a press release from the state treasurer’s office, other counties participating are: Cape Girardeau County, Cass County, Clay County, Cole County, Franklin County, Greene County, Jasper County, Newton County, St. Charles County, the City of St. Louis, and Vernon County, with additional counties in progress of being added to the database.
Visitors to the website can examine expenditure data detailing funds, departments, vendors, payment descriptions, and totals for the available government entities.
Carter County commissioners were supportive of the effort, Stephens said.
“This has been a couple of years in the making... We began interfacing our data to where it downloaded into the format that they needed,” she said. “We are a small county, but fortunate enough to have a financial system that is pretty flexible, and I was able to get that information to them relatively easily.”
To access the Show-Me Checkbook Local Government Checkbook site to: