You Get What You Pay For: Colorado Is First State to Let Citizens Track Their Taxes Online

So, how much is safe drinking water worth to you? Or K-12 education? Or decent roads? If you're an average Colorado family with an income of $57,000, it's less than $5 a year for groundwater inspections, $827 towards educating more than 800,000 Colorado kids, and $141 in transportation spending on 23,000 miles of state highways and bridges.

State Treasurer Cary Kennedy, in a continuing effort to let Colorado taxpayers know exactly where their money is going, has launched Colorado Tax Tracks, available at www.colorado.gov/treasury.

It's a nifty little tool that gives detailed information on an individual or family basis about how state tax dollars are spent, including percentages and how they are used. It's the first and only such state Tax Tracker in the country.

"Taxpayers need to know if they are getting value for their tax dollar," said Kennedy. "When people pay taxes they are buying a service and benefit for their community. Colorado Tax Tracks shows taxpayers what they pay and what they buy for their money."

And if you don't like where your taxes are going, you're invited to weigh in on that, too. The Tax Tracker asks people whether the spending in certain areas is too much, too little, or just right.

And for all you out there who complain about government spending, consider the reality of Colorado's state budget for the next fiscal year: according to State Rep. Jack Pommer, who serves on the legislature's bipartisan Joint Budget Committee, Colorado's new budget will be equal in dollars to the 2001 edition. Since 2001, the state has grown by 600,000 residents; added 10,000 inmates to the prison system, 80,000 kids to the K-12 system, 20,000 students to the University system and Medicaid recipients have grown by an additional 200,000.

So the next time Uncle Fred plans to go to a Tea Party protest, direct him to the Tax Tracker. It could save you both some time and headaches.