Scan the city of Rochester’s check registry for last year and the nearly $30,000 spent at pizza parlors might catch your attention. The $3,600 paid to an indoor plant store might, too. Or the $100 that went to a poultry farmer in the United Kingdom.

The register provides — much as a personal checkbook or bank statement might — a detailed list of city spending on everything from construction projects to office supplies, from refunds on property taxes to employee training.

While the register is a public document, Rochester, like most cities, does not publish it as they do the annual city budget and financial statement. Neither does Monroe County, Syracuse or Buffalo.

But there is movement in such places as Texas and Massachusetts for governments and agencies to post these records online. And the U.S. Public Interest Research Group recently scored state government transparency based, in part, on checkbook-level disclosures on their websites. New York received a “C” grade.

“How tax money is being spent is one of the biggest issues on any taxpayer’s mind right now — especially as you see these massive budget cuts across the country,” said Keith Elkins, executive director for the nonprofit Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, which got an “A” in the national report.

“More taxpayers are getting concerned, and rightfully so. How is their money being spent, and is it being spent wisely?”….

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