It’s your money, says State Comptroller Kevin Lembo, you have the right to know where it’s being spent. Lembo has launched a new financial research portal Open Connecticut that follows the comings and goings of taxpayer dollars through “transparency” categories. There’s even a Follow The Money page to track compensation and benefits of state employees as well as pension payments of retirees and vendor contract spending. Can you imagine finding this type of information on the city’s website?



This stuff is right up the financial alley of city fiscal watchdog John Marshall Lee who scours city financial data from a variety of sources because info is not available from a central portal.

The Open Connecticut site also includes municipal information about grand lists of taxable property, state formula aid to municipalities, mil rates, real estate sales and town revaluation dates such as the Bridgeport reval that will likely be put off by the legislature for another two years.

Lembo has an independent streak that makes the political and government establishment uncomfortable. In the early years of Dan Malloy’s administration, the governor’s bean counters had rosier outlooks than Comptroller Lembo’s deficit projections. They reported this and Lembo reported that. Some in the governor’s office were shouting prehistoric noises at Lembo’s sobering financial numbers. Now, at least, both sides are reporting surpluses.

Can you imagine, an elected official who lets you know where the moolah is being spent? Such nerve! From Lembo:

We all pay taxes–but few of us actually research where tax dollars come from and where they go. Historically, pockets of state financial information have been available–but scattered across agencies. Through Open Connecticut, we want to centralize that information and make it easier for you to follow. What exactly is in the state budget? Where did our deficits or surpluses come from? How much did we spend on a particular vendor or program? And what should we expect in future years? It’s your money. You have a right to know.