Governor Blunt's Accountability Internet Site Surpasses Eight Million Hits

FROM THE OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

June 24, 2008

Contact: Jessica Robinson, 573-751-0290


JEFFERSON CITY  Gov. Matt Blunt today highlighted the success of his Missouri Accountability Portal (MAP) as the site exceeded the 8 million hit mark, providing all Missourians with valuable information about how their tax dollars are spent.

"It took less than a month for my state government accountability site to accumulate an additional million hits to reach the 8 million mark, proving that Missourians are interested and monitoring how our state spends their hard-earned tax dollars," Gov. Blunt said. "I am committed to making it easier for Missourians to learn more about how we are investing their tax dollars to improve opportunities and provide vital services for the state, and I encourage Missourians to take advantage of the MAP site to track state spending."

The governors MAP site is an Internet site enabling Missourians to track the expenditure of all tax dollars in near real-time. Since launching the new Internet site last year there have been 8,028,923 hits to the MAP site at http://mapyourtaxes.mo.gov.

The MAP site is one of the first comprehensive databases of financial records based on real-time data in the nation. The MAP site is updated at the close of each business day to provide up-to-date access to information about state spending. Anyone can search the MAP site by budget category, vendor or contract. Links to other public information maintained by the state are also available on the MAP site. The MAP expenditure site has also been enhanced to allow Missourians to review state expenditures by state agency and information regarding tax credits administered by the Missouri Department of Economic Development since tax credit application year 2000. The site also provides easy to access, real time information on state employee salaries.

Last week Gov. Blunt commended the team who developed his MAP portal. The team earned national recognition with an American Business Award. The Information Technology Services Division (ITSD) Team won the Best MIS and IT Team Category for the development of http://MapYourTaxes.mo.gov at the 2008 American Business Awards. The American Business Awards are the only national, allencompassing awards program honoring great performances in business.

Americans for Tax Reform has lauded Gov. Blunt for creating the Internet site. "Gov. Blunt is one of the first governors to enable taxpayers to become fiscal watchdogs, and I commend him for taking this step towards greater fiscal transparency," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.