HARTFORD — The state’s Department of Corrections hired a clown named Huggles for $600. The Department of Veterans Affairs spent $1,210 on New York Yankees tickets. A total of 1,137 state employees are paid more than Gov. M. Jodi Rell, and 175 retired state employees collect pensions in excess of $100,000 a year.
These tidbits are now publicly available online for the first time thanks to a new “transparency” Web site, CTsunlight.org, that lists where every tax dollar spent by state government goes — every state employee's salary, every retiree's pension and every vendor payment by every state government department or agency.
The Yankee Institute, a conservative/libertarian think tank based in Hartford, created CTsunlight.org following a massive Freedom of Information Act request for data covering calendar 2007 and 2008. "We believe transparency and disclosure of how government spends tax dollars puts downward pressure on spending, which in turn keeps taxes low," said Fergus Cullen, the Yankee Institute's executive director. "We call our Web site CTSunlight.org because we believe sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
More examples from 2008:
• The Department of Education spent $258,478 on referees and umpires.
• The state spent $2,582 at various Dunkin’ Donuts locations.
• The Attorney General's office spent $5,100,205 on attorney's fees to private law firms.
• The Department of Corrections spent $2.8 million for milk from the Guida Dairy.
• The Department of Veterans Affairs subscribes to the Book of the Month Club for $607.
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