BOISE, Idaho (KBOI) - US PIRG or Public Interest Research Group Education Fund put out a study on spending transparency on the internet by states. States go a grade A through F. Idaho came in third from the bottom with an F.
The study came from a web site called US PIRG. They're a consumer group that researches trends with special interests and politics. They ranked all the states by how transparent they are for residents to get information about state spending.
The US PIRG web site says they rated the states by the amount of information on the states web site and the ease of use to find information. Last year Idaho got a C. Idaho's Chief Deputy Controller said, "Organizations like US PIRG, their single focus is on transparency. They haven't come to Idaho they haven't looked at the statutes that are unique to Idaho."
The controller's office say Idaho residents can get any public information on state spending they need online. They can see who gets paid the most and where all the spending is going. The state doesn't think much of the grade. "Yes we don't like an F grade but this is an out of state organization that only cares about transparency and only uses one yard stick on all states on all state regardless of size of state, size of budget," said Dan Goicoechea.
The Transparant Idaho web site can be seen at transparent.idaho.gov
The tranparant study can be found at uspirg.org
ncG1vNJzZmihlJa1sLrEsKpnm5%2BifK%2Bx1qxmpaeTlrlwtcOan6hlpKeur7%2FPmqmeppOueqix06xkmmWSnrRussCtZJ9llqe8rnnUrGSpoaKc