The Colorado Department of Treasury Web site has a new feature that shows Coloradans how their state tax dollars are spent and lets visitors to the site offer input.”Government can only be accountable if taxpayers can see what they are buying and how much they are paying for it,” said Cary Kennedy, Colorado state treasurer.Colorado Tax Tracks, available at www.colorado.gov/treasury, gives people detailed information on an individual or family basis about how state tax dollars are used. Users enter their income and the system provides an interactive report that shows an estimate of how much they spent on different services. Information is broken down so that taxpayers can see what they spend on nearly 100 functions of government, from clean drinking water inspections to disease control. Visitors to the Web site then have the opportunity to vote on whether they agree with the way funds are collected and spent.Coloradans pay $7 billion annually in state taxes, including income, sales and fuel. Colorado Tax Tracks links what people pay in taxes with what they buy. It is the first state Web site of its kind in the country.The Web site also includes a detailed listing of state investments, a monthly cash flow and daily balance sheet for the state of Colorado, State Taxpayer Accountability Report (summary of the state’s overall financial position for taxpayers) and the Transparency Online Project (a searchable database of state revenues and expenditures).
