Database allows easy tracking of lobbyist spending in Ohio

The Joint Legislative Ethics Committee, which oversees lobbying activity in Ohio, has begun upgrading its system to allow easier access to lobbyist spending.

The system allows people to search for data in a number of ways, including by legislator, bill number or category, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Because the program is still being updated, users can only check the first two quarters of 2009.

“It just makes it so much easier to have a sense of the flow of the money and to better understand who is influencing the process,” said Catherine Turcer, director of Ohio Citizen Action’s Money in Politics Project.

Previous searches through data required sifting through pages of unsearchable electronic forms.