Empire Center Launches “Explore Your State Budget”

Explore Your State Budget was launched today by the Empire Center for New York State Policy / Manhattan Institute. The new site is a welcome addition to the growing list of online tools which help the public understand how the government is spending tax dollars. Per the press release, the downloadable data on Explore Your State Budget includes

disbursement and receipts items from the governor’s proposed Executive Budget for fiscal 2014. It also includes actual results, estimates and projections for major spending and tax categories dating back to 2011 and stretching out to fiscal 2017, along with a time series of total annual disbursements dating back to 1984 and tax receipts dating back to 1976.

The well designed site also includes handy explanations of terms and titles, and “Special Features” which add additional data about agency activities. The new app builds on the Empire Center’s innovative use of Information Technology to increase government transparency. The group, which is often described as a “conservative think tank,” broke new ground with SeeThroughNY which publishes online government payrolls, pensions, contracts, and now, the budget.