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Databases help promote greater transparency in state government

Have you wondered where your state tax dollars are going? Thanks to recent government reforms, two online databases have been created to provide easier access to such information at the state level.

PennWATCH is an online, searchable database of all state government expenditures.This website provides the following information regarding each funding action or expenditure paid to a commonwealth agency or other entity from federal or state funds:• The name and address of the agency or other entity receiving funding.• The amount of the funding action or expenditure.• The agency initiating the funding action or expenditure.• The appropriation from which the funding action or expenditure is paid.• A counter to show the number of visitors to the site.• The funding source.In addition, the website shows at the end of each month all federal and state revenue received and deposited in the state treasury during the previous month. PennWATCH also includes a link to each agency's website, where available. And, not only does PennWATCH list all state government expenditures within the commonwealth, but the public can search the site at any time day or night at no cost. It can be accessed at

www.pennwatch.pa.gov.A new website recently launched by the Pennsylvania Department of Education gives taxpayers access to statewide public school district spending, not only for traditional school districts, but for charter and cyber charter schools, and comprehensive career and technology centers as well.Users should note that financial information is listed according to school district only and not individual schools. As such, searching generally for an individual school will not yield financial results.This website also provides a numeric score for each public school by using multiple measures of student achievement, such as student performance on the state assessments in math, reading, science and writing; graduation rate; attendance rate; and promotion rate.The site is

www.Paschoolperformance.org.