Have you wondered where your state tax dollars are going? Thanks to recent government reforms, two online databases have been created to provide easier access to such information at the state level.

PennWATCH, the Pennsylvania Web Accountability, Transparency and Contract Hub, is an online, searchable database of all state government expenditures.

I often hear from people they want to know how their tax dollars are being used and where it is all going.

This website provides the following information regarding each funding action or expenditure paid to a commonwealth agency or other entity from federal or state funds:the name and address of the agency or other entity receiving funding, the amount of the funding action or expenditure, the agency initiating the funding action or expenditure, the appropriation from which the funding action or expenditure is paid, a counter to show the number of visitors to the site and the funding source.

In addition, the website shows at the end of each month all federal and state revenue received and deposited in the state treasury during the previous month.

PennWATCH also includes a link to each agency's website, where available. And, not only does PennWATCH list all state government expenditures within the commonwealth, but the public can search the site at any time day or night at no cost.

It can be accessed at pennwatch.pa.gov.

A new website recently launched by the Pennsylvania Department of Education gives taxpayers access to statewide public school district spending, not only for traditional school districts, but for charter and cyber charter schools, and comprehensive career and technology centers as well.

Users should note that financial information is listed according to school district only and not individual schools.

As such, searching generally for an individual school will not yield financial results.

This website also provides a numeric score for each public school by using multiple measures of student achievement, such as student performance on the state assessments in math, reading, science and writing; and graduation, attendance and promotion rates.

The web address for this site is Paschoolperformance.org.

I encourage residents to check out these sites and become familiar with the information they can provide.

These are just two of the many reforms we have passed into law to make state government more transparent and the information we have more accessible.

More legislative news and information can be found at JuileHarhart.com or at Facebook.com/ RepHarhart.