Seeing Through New York

New York government became a lot more transparent today, thanks to the Manhattan Institute, one of the most forward-looking voices for reform in the State.   Its new website, SeeThroughNY.net, puts online

".  .  . searchable databases of the entire payroll of state government employees, operating expenses by both houses of the New York State Legislature, the Legislature’s pork-barrel 'member items' spending for 2008-09, and current teachers' union contracts and superintendents of schools contracts for nearly all of New York's school districts."

The site lists information never before available online.   The data was compiled by the Manhattan Institute through numerous Freedom of Information Law requests to the State.

The contracts for teachers' unions, school superintendents and other school district contracts were not previously available in one place, even from the State Education Department.

According to the Albany Times-Union, the site, inaugurated today, is close to crashing after being "bombarded with hits .  .  . mostly from state IP addresses."