ALBANY, N.Y. -- "This is the ultimate in a series of choices that have placed us where we are now," said Governor David Paterson on Wednesday.

If spending across New York is the big issue, you might consider this the roadmap.

Empire Center for New York State Policy Director E. J. McMahon said, "Taxpayers have a fundamental right to know how their tax money is being spent."

On Thursday, the Empire Center for New York State Policy's E. J. McMahon announced a new website that makes state spending, payroll and teacher contracts searchable: SeeThroughNY.net.

McMahon said, "It's not just the state, but counties, cities, villages, towns..."

The website expands upon previous sites, like the comptroller's Open Book New York. And like the AG's Project Sunlight, it will show you how much every state employee is paid, including one state hospital worker who makes more than $715,000 a year. It allows you to check out legislators' community projects too.

McMahon said, "It's conceivable that people will in fact be outraged and in fact feel more fiscally conservative after they see this information."

The information was obtained from the largest request for public information in the state's history -- information like those teacher contracts was typically difficult to get.

"This is the most complete data anyone's ever had. No one - including the State Education Department - has ever had copies of all the teachers' contracts or the superintendents' contracts in one place."

The site is a work in progress. They're still waiting on information from a number of entities including three school districts. But in the meantime, they said this is a start for fighting waste in government.

NYS League of Women Voters Legislative Director Barbara Bartoletti said, "There will be far more pressure by local taxpayers to make their school districts, superintendents, local governments, planning boards, all those local elements in government, far more, not only more responsible, but accountable."

McMahon said, "For instance, if you look at the Legislature's expenditures, it may occur to you that there's a lot of duplicative maintenance and operation expenditures in the state Legislature, which in fact has a budget of over $200 million, which works out to be over $1 million per member."

A valuable tool that allows you to be the judge, in a time when cuts are coming.