Want to know what your state taxpayer dollars pay for? LA Gov. Jindal new website

BATON ROUGE -- Want to know what the state Office of Business Development spent last year on employee salaries ($4,349,216.48)? How much the lieutenant governor's office has spent so far this year on travel and training ($117,881.49)? Or the annual salary of Insurance Commissioner James Donelon ($115,000)?

Starting Wednesday, a new Web site developed by the state budget office allows citizens to find such information with a mouse click, rather than a public records request, as part of an ongoing effort by Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration to make state government more transparent and accountable.

"Citizens must have as much information as possible about how government spends its money," Commissioner of Administration Angele Davis said at a ceremony to unveil the LaTrac Web site. The site was developed under an executive order issued by Jindal on his first full day in office in January. It was later mandated by a law passed during a February special session on ethics.

The site, which will be updated monthly, can be accessed through the state's main Web portal at www.la.gov; through the Division of Administration's Web site, www.doa.louisiana.gov; or directly at wwwprd.doa.la.gov/latrac/index.cfm

Davis said visitors also will be able to compare spending against agency "performance criteria." She said Louisiana is one of only eight states to make state spending available in an online database, one of just two states to track spending on higher education as part of those efforts, and the only state to link spending to performance measures in an online format.