Transparency in the Iowa government

Iowa official website
URL: http://www.iowa.gov/state/main/index.html

Description:
 * Provides access to information about the Iowa government and its services.

OpenUp.Iowa.Gov
URL: http://openup.iowa.gov/boards/

Description:
 * Message from Governor and Lt. Governor expresses their commitment to opening up the Iowa government, but the site is not complete and does not appear to be updated regularly.

Iowa General Assembly
URL: http://www.legis.state.ia.us/index.html

Description:
 * Web portal for legislative information.
 * Provides streaming audio when the Legislature is in session.

Lobbying disclosure information
URL: http://www.iowa.gov/ethics/lobbying/lobbyist_reports.htm

Description:
 * Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board lists lobbyists in PDF and Excel formats.

State campaign disclosure information
URL: http://www.state.ia.us/government/iecdb/

Description:
 * Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board has campaign, ethics, and lobbying reports and a searchable database of contributions.

Legislative Social Calendar
URL: http://www.legis.state.ia.us/House/HCC/SocCal/

Description:
 * Lists receptions, breakfasts and luncheons held by both governmental and non-governmental organizations.

Proposed legislation
HF 74 - Taxpayer Transparency Act of 2009

(Track bill) (Sponsors: Paulsen, Struyk, Helland, Upmeyer and Olson)
 * Mandates the creation of a searchable online budget database providing details on state expenditures and a searchable online tax databases providing information about tax rates. The budget database would need to be created by January 1, 2011, and the tax database by January 1, 2010.

More legislative information
For more on transparency legislation, see the Iowa transparency legislation webpage at Sunshine Review.