What does the state of Missouri spend your money on, and who is getting that money? You could always look at the state budget to give you a general idea of the state's priorities, but unless you know where to look and have the time and money to complete the requests for the information, it would be pretty difficult to get your hands on Missouri's "checkbook registers."

Thanks to the hard work of many Show-Me staff, over the last few months the Institute has slowly accumulated a host of spending data—not only from the state, but from local governments as well—about how government officials are spending your money. Late last week, the state data set went live; expect to see a lot more in the days, weeks, and months ahead as we make more spending data available to the public.

If officials can spend your money, they can tell you what they're buying and who is selling to them. We hope the public, researchers, stat geeks, and journalists find the information interesting and useful.