[November 08, 2012]

Indiana Gets an A in State Spending Transparency Study

A study released by Activity-Based Total Accountability (ABTA) Institute at the Florida Institute of Technology gives the State of Indiana an A- for providing transparency to state spending data. Indiana topped all 50 states for transparency according to the ABTA.

The study analyzed each state's spending data and awarded a grade of A to F on the institute's state report card, which can be found at http://abta.fit.edu/report_card.

On a grading scale ranging from 0 to 100, Indiana recorded the high score of 90 and was one of only three states receiving an "A-" grade along with Utah and New Jersey. Indiana received perfect reporting scores in the categories of supportability, ease of navigation, readability, data content, download capability, graphics capabilities, contextual information, and supportability via social media.

"This effort creates transparency in governent spending to serve the taxpayer," says ABTA Institute Director Deborah Sater Carstens, an associate professor of information systems at Florida Tech's Nathan M. Bisk College of Business. She adds, "Accountability in government is achieved only when total costs are considered in light of all activities performed by agencies. To successfully track total costs, a standard system of measurement is required."

The ABTA Institute effort drew its data from the spending documents of all 50 states for a variety of departments and sectors. Links to these reports and tables are at: http://abta.fit.edu/data.

The ABTA Institute used a recent U.S. Small Business Administration grant to perform a state report card analysis and to fund training videos. The videos explain what ABTA is, how ABTA unit costs are developed and how to use ABTA to transform government. Video trainer Gary Van Landingham said, "ABTA has the potential to help citizens and their governments dramatically improve the efficiency of public services, and I encourage them to use the resources on the website to begin this process."

The ABTA Institute is a resource of the Nathan M. Bisk College of Business at Florida Tech. For more information, contact Carstens at Carstens@fit.edu.

Founded in 1958, Florida Tech is the only independent, technological university in the Southeast. The university was designated a Tier One Best National University in U.S. News & World Report. The university offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs. Fields of study include science, engineering, aeronautics, business, humanities, mathematics, psychology, communication and education. Visit www.fit.edu for more information.

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