From The Columbus Dispatch After trailing other states, Ohio is now at the top of the list for transparency in government spending.
The U.S. Public Interest Research Group announced today that Ohio jumped to No. 1 after being ranked 46th last year.
Ohio received a perfect score of 100 — the highest score the group has ever awarded. Ohio’s jump to the top was the largest single improvement since the group started the ranking six years ago.
The top ranking comes after Treasurer Josh Mandel’s office unveiled OhioCheckbook.com, which tracks spending by all government agencies in the state, in December.
Mandel said the reason his office launched the site was so Ohio could “be leader, not a basement dweller.”
“My ultimate goal here is to help set off a national race for transparency,” Mandel said.
The website has about 112 million transactions going back to fiscal year 2008 through fiscal year 2014. The treasurer’s office plans to eventually update the site monthly, but isn’t ready to do that yet.