With the advent of Gov 2.0 technology, there has been a hopeful movement toward government transparency, with state government spending being one key area. For those interested in following transparency news that affects government procurement, Govtech.com published an article by Matt Williams called “State Spending Transparency Greatly Improved from 1 Year Ago, Survey Says.”

Williams draws his information from U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups, which published their Executive Summary of 2010.

This quote from U.S. PIRG’s website gives us an idea of what they were evaluating:

“State governments across the country have been moving toward making their checkbooks transparent by creating online transparency portals – government-operated websites that allow visitors to see who receives state money and for what purposes. Forty states provide transparency websites that allow residents to access databases of government expenditures with ‘checkbook-level’ detail. Most of these websites are also searchable, making it easier for residents to follow the money and monitor government spending.”

Govtech.com’s article nicely sums up the results: states are generally improving, with about an equal number of states receiving an “A” or “B” grade (nine states) as their are states getting a failing grade (10 states). The interactive map shows there are no regional or partisan favorites.

Louisiana got an A minus – a nice thing for a state striving to change its ethics reputation to a “gold standard” after many troubles.  My state, Ohio, received a “B minus”. Not bad.

What grade did your state receive?