Missouri State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick today announced that Jackson County and St. Louis County have been added to the Local Government Checkbook, making spending data from Missouri’s two largest counties available to taxpayers. The Checkbook is part of his ongoing commitment to ensuring a more efficient and transparent government at both the state and local levels.

“As Treasurer, a priority of mine continues to be improving transparency at all levels of government because I believe transparency leads to better government,” Treasurer Fitzpatrick said. “There is no question that with unprecedented spending levels across government, knowing how those dollars are being spent will help build trust in government. I am now taking my commitment to giving taxpayers unfettered access to government spending information to the next level by using the power available to every Missourian under the Sunshine Law to gather the data we will make available to the public through our user-friendly searchable expenditure database.”

The data from these two counties represents over $2 billion in expenditures.

Both the Show-Me Checkbook and the Local Government Checkbook make spending data available to Missouri taxpayers in an interactive and searchable portal. As part of his commitment to transparency, the Treasurer has begun using Sunshine Requests to obtain expenditure data from counties who have not voluntarily agreed to participate.

Visitors to the Checkbook can examine expenditure data detailing funds, departments, vendors, payment descriptions, and totals for the available government entities.

In 2020, Treasurer Fitzpatrick announced the expansion of the Show-Me Checkbook to include local governments. He also facilitated aggregating state expenditures related to federal stimulus funding in one portal on the Treasurer’s Office website for Missourians to search. This portal has been expanded to include information related to the American Rescue Plan.