Any bill that makes state spending more transparent to the taxpayers is a good bill that needs to be debated and passed by the state Legislature.

A bill to set up a state Web site to allow taxpayers to track government spending sailed to approval in the Oklahoma Senate Thursday.

Hopefully, the winds will continue to blow it through the House as well with similar ease.

As the legislation stands now, the Office of State Finance would operate the Web site. And, even better, representatives of that office say it can be accomplished at relatively little cost.

This move is similar to a move by U.S. Sens. Tom Coburn and Barrack Obama that was enacted in Congress.

It’s about time the Legislature uses the technology available to help make taxpayers more aware of where the money goes. If taxpayers are more informed about where the state is spending money, they will be able to better analyze whether the state is being a good steward of taxpayer funds.

When Coburn introduced his bill in Congress last year, he said the only way taxpayers can get a grip on just how much waste there is in federal government spending is if they can see it for themselves.

He’s right. So many bills are introduced each year, it is difficult to keep track of all of them or how much they cost.

What will be tricky, however, is whether the Web site will be easy to use and understand. It won’t do any good if the spreadsheets or the tracking systems are unwieldy to read or analyze.

And, taxpayers will have to take some initiative to find out the information by clicking on the Web site. What should accompany this effort is a full-fledged education campaign by the Office of State Finance to make taxpayers aware of the site and how to use it.

It’s a good move, and one we hope to see enacted this session.