This could be fun, once I learn how to use it

John Tierney posted this on Instapundit yesterday:

FOLLOW THE MONEY: Brown, Harvard, and Indiana University of Pa. Received Gifts from the “State of Palestine.”  The grants were spotted by the watchdogs at OpenThe Books, which has also just launched a free tool for members of the public to do their own searches of how money is being spent by governments at the local, state and federal levels. It’s called Benjamin the Chatbot (in honor of Benjamin Franklin.)

I went to the site and looked up “Greenwich” — I supplied my email address and within seconds I was sent a summary showing a list or recipients of money paid by the state to Greenwich entities, ranging from Garden Catering to the YMCA. Can I narrow that further, to see payments made directly by town of Greenwich? I think so, but haven’t yet experimented.

(The links are active in the email ; those in the pictures below are not)

The first picture below is a sample of the overall payment list, the second shows the results of clicking on a particular payees’ highlighted link. Only the dollar amount is shown, not the specific purpose for the payment — for instance, we can probably presume that Garden Catering was paid for, duh, catering a town event — but the tool should be useful for seeing where are tax dollars: federal; state; and local are being spent, and thus opening an avenue for further inquiry.