NH Gets C+ Rating on State Budget Transparency

Despite a perception of transparency about how New Hampshire state tax dollars are spent, a new report ranks the state near the bottom which it comes to access to information about government spending.

The NHPIRG Education Fund gives New Hampshire a “C+” rating in its new report, “Following the Money 2015: How the 50 States Rate in Providing Online Access to Government Spending Data,” or 39th out of 50 states.

“This year, most states have continued to make their budgets more open to the public, allowing users to better scrutinize how the government uses their tax dollars,” said Phineas Baxandall, a senior analyst with New Hampshire Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, in a statement. “New Hampshire, however, has remained stagnant.”

According to the org, officials from the Granite State and 46 others worked with researchers to analyze the state transparency online.

New Hampshire is still a “middling” state in the report, according to press statements, due in large part to a lack of data about the state’s largest economic development programs. The state, the researchers surmised, “needs to expand disclosures around such subsidy programs if it aims to keep up with the tide of improvements” that other states are providing.

“Open and accessible state budgets are important so that the public can see where its tax dollars are being spent, and hold their state government accountable for its decisions,” said Sunlight Foundation National Policy Manager Emily Shaw. “It’s encouraging to see more states prioritizing open data policies and taking the steps necessary to make their data truly accessible.”

To visit New Hampshire’s transparency website, go to nh.gov/transparentnh. To read the full PIRG report, visit nhpirg.org/reports/nhp/following-money-2015.