Last year, when Commissioner of Administration Angele Davis launched LaTrac, the state’s online portal to state spending, it was a long-awaited dose of sunshine. Anyone from businesses and reporters to citizens and government workers can now drive their browser to latrac.la.gov to access a detailed database of the vendor payments made by the state. But apparently there’s room for improvement.
In a recent survey conducted by the Center for the Study of Responsive Law, Louisiana was placed at or near the bottom in terms of providing state contracting information online. Still, the center praised LaTrac (Louisiana Transparency and Accountability) for giving taxpayers a peek at the state’s budget as well as the names of state contractors and the amount of each contract. Its report noted, however, that “most importantly, LaTrac should provide the full text of the contract online.” Michael DiResto, Davis’ director of communications, says an initiative is already “underway to beef up the contracts,” which should add an entirely new layer of disclosure to state spending.
The survey, whose methodology was confined solely to online access, also doesn’t mention that LaTrac includes a listing of all expenditures for higher education—making it one of only two states, along with Oklahoma, to provide such spending information—as well as for the Department of Transportation and Development. The most recent upgrade to the LaTrac portal came just last month, when Davis’ office added a new search engine for state grants, found separately at laegrants.la.gov.—Jeremy Alford
