Wyoming State Auditor Kristi Racines has launched a new website detailing how Wyoming spends most of its money. The website, WyOpen.gov, went live earlier this month.
The site's data includes transactions from 2016 to the present, and is searchable by agency, vendor, location and other categories.
It does not, however, include payments between state agencies or information deemed confidential by the auditor's office or state and federal law.
Racines says a perfectly transparent government would allow a resident to connect every dollar in the budget to the revenue stream it came from, and the way it was eventually spent. But Wyoming is a long way from that ideal.
"I think we can move towards that, and this is just a really solid, basic first step," she said.
Racines says her office encourages feedback as Wyoming residents discover and explore the new site.
In a letter last month, Governor Mark Gordon asked state agencies to reduce jargon in their budget proposals and include summaries specifically for members of the public. Gordon plans to release his own budget proposal for the state in November, with the launch of its own, separate website.
