Cost of state transparency websites
From Sunshine Review
Federal costs
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that implementation of USASpending.gov would cost about $4 million initially in 2007 and about $15 million more over the 2007-2011 period. Actual costs were much lower, at $1 million.
The software used by the Office of Management and Budget to create USASpending.gov is now available for free from OMB Watch.
State costs
Cost estimates for creating an online transparancy website have varied widely from state to state.
Missouri used existing resources to create their Missouri Accountability Portal.
Nebraska Treasurer Shane Osborn created NebraskaSpending.com for $39,000.
Oklahoma Open Books, which includes a wider range of state expenditure types than just grants and contracts, received a cost estimate from the Office of State Finance that said fully implementing thespending database website would cost up to $300,000 ($40,000 in initial costs with future expenses of $245,000-$260,000).
If the existing state accounting software cannot interface without a costly upgrade, it would be possible to collect grant and contract spending information with other methods. West Virginia, for example, requires state agencies to submit grant information to a central database via forms, while North Carolina requires grant recipients to provide relevant data via reports.
The bottom line is that there are ways to make spending information accessible to taxpayers without consuming excessive outlays in the process.
