Vermont Transparency website now offers state vendor data

Vermont citizens and news media can now readily find out the names of vendors selling goods and services to state government, and the purpose and amounts of the transactions involved. The Vermont Transparency site (www.vttransparency.org) now allows viewers to quickly sort through over 121,000 vendor transactions occurring over the first three quarters of FY 2011 (through March 31, 2011).
The site now reveals, for example, that in fiscal 2010 Vermont spent $25 million to provide heating fuel assistance, almost $24 million to rent heavy equipment and other construction machinery, and $22.5 million in interest on state bonds.
As other examples, the site shows that Newcomb Studios of Montpelier, run by cartoonist Tim Newcomb, received six payments from state agencies, totaling $9,238, for graphic arts work. The Vermont Natural Resources Council, with seven registered lobbyists, received one payment of $9,181.
The new feature complements state employee and legislator compensation data already available on the transparency site, along with a wealth of additional information about the workings and spending of state government.
The Vermont Transparency Project is a joint project of the two nonprofit organizations with widely differing economic philosophies, the free market Ethan Allen Institute and the liberal Public Assets Institute. The Project is believed to be the only such effort in the country co-sponsored by organizations of the left and right.
‘Open government is the hallmark of democracy, and openness in how government raises and spends money is necessary if Vermonters are going to help shape the kind of state they want to live in,’ said Paul Cillo, executive director of Public Assets Institute.
Former EAI President John McClaughry, who initiated the project in 2008, said ‘we are grateful for the months of hard work by the Department of Finance and Management, under the Douglas and Shumlin administrations, that finally succeeded in getting this important data base into condition for release to the public. Now any Vermonter can quickly find out who is receiving our tax dollars, in what amount, and for what purpose.’
Source: EAI. 8.20.2011