Citizens Informed wants to curb state spending.

The grassroots campaign is currently pushing the legislature to put the state budget online in a more searchable and user-friendly format.

But it also hopes that will help reduce spending, according to an October press release from its Webmaster, O3 Strategies of Raleigh.

They will use their online forum as a way to increase their coalition numbers so as to successfully encourage the North Carolina State Legislature to publish its budget online. With an online, searchable budget, the organization hopes state spending on wasteful projects will be more visable (sic) and therefore curb the spending appetite of Legislature members.

Another release from the Webmaster notes the budget facts on the Web site.

"A snazzy rotating 'fact' gizmo adorns the left side detailing a few outrageous cases of government waste," it says.

Is North Carolina ready for a Web 2.0 budget?

A grassroots group called Citizens Informed is pushing for the state budget and spending to be available online in a more searchable and linkable format.

For several years, the budget has been posted as a massive PDF — essentially an online printout.

Launched in November, the group is calling for the budget and spending to be "searchable, accessible and user-friendly," though it gives few details on exactly how that should work.

Director Laurie Onorio, a 24-year-old Garner resident who works in public affairs, said the group hopes the state will model similar sites in Texas, Missouri and Alaska. (Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue has also called for "Google transparency" on state spending.)

For now, the group has about 35 individual members and support from the conservative John Locke Foundation and Civitas Institute. The Web site also makes some conservative critiques of the budget, noting that "$50 million of your tax money is allocated for 'open space.'"

But Onorio said the group aims to be bipartisan.

"We want to get anyone and everyone who supports this on board," she said. "This is not a partisan issue whatsoever."