Where Do Your Tax Dollars Go? How to Track State and Local Spending in California

Californians pay taxes every day through income taxes, sales taxes, gas taxes, property taxes, vehicle fees, utility charges, and local assessments.

But once that money is collected, where does it actually go?

The answer is not always easy to find in one place, but much of the information is public. California has several online transparency tools that allow residents to look up state spending, city budgets, county finances, special districts, and even public employee compensation.

What you want to track	Where to look	What it shows
State spending	Open FI$Cal	State department expenditures, searchable and downloadable. It is California’s official financial transparency site and lets taxpayers see how state money is being spent. (Open FISCal)
State budget priorities	California Budget / Department of Finance	The governor’s proposed budget, May Revision, and enacted budget details by department and program. (California Budget)
Local city/county spending	State Controller “By The Numbers”	Revenues and spending for cities, counties, special districts, transit agencies, and more. (Tyler Data & Insights)
County spending	CA Counties Data	County revenue and expenditure reports. (Counties by the Numbers)
City spending	CA Cities Data	City revenue and expenditure reports for California cities. (By The Numbers)
Special districts	CA Special Districts Data	Spending for water districts, sanitation districts, fire districts, cemetery districts, etc. (By the Numbers)
Government salaries	Government Compensation in California	Pay and compensation data for public agencies. The State Controller created this database to improve transparency. (GCC)

At the state level, California operates Open FI$Cal, the state’s official financial transparency website. The site allows the public to search non-confidential state expenditure data and see how state agencies are spending money. According to Open FI$Cal, the data is updated monthly, with at least a 60-day delay to allow departments to review information before it is published.

For local spending, residents can use the California State Controller’s “By The Numbers” website. That tool includes financial data for cities, counties, special districts, transit agencies, transportation planning agencies, and public retirement systems.

That means residents can look up spending connected to local governments such as cities, counties, water districts, sanitation districts, fire districts, and other public agencies.

There is also a separate Government Compensation in California database, operated by the State Controller’s Office, where residents can search public employee pay and benefits reported by thousands of public employers across the state.

The challenge is that tracking tax dollars takes time. Money may move through different agencies, funds, grants, contracts, and programs before it reaches the final project or service. A road project, for example, may involve state funds, local funds, transportation funds, federal grants, and contractor payments.

That is why transparency tools matter. They allow residents to ask basic but important questions:

• What was collected?

• What was promised?

• What was budgeted?

• What was actually spent?

• Who received the money?

• And did the public get what it paid for?
  

For Antelope Valley residents, this can apply to roads, public safety, schools, parks, housing programs, transportation projects, special districts, and local government spending.

Public money belongs to the public. The more residents know how to follow it, the easier it becomes to ask informed questions and hold agencies accountable.

So here is the question for the community:

What local spending should we look into first?