Starting this month, we taxpayers will be able to find out how state senators and their staffs spend our money on meals, travel and other expenses.

Spotlight PA and newspapers across the state, including the Times News, have been urging lawmakers to come clean about how taxpayers’ money is spent on their expenses. This is on top of their very generous annual compensation and fringe benefits.

The disclosures will be made online on a new website managed by the Senate chief clerk, who is the upper house’s administrator and record-keeper for both parties.

So far, so good.

What about the House of Representatives and its 203 members? As of now, there has been no commitment, but House leaders indicated that they are considering doing the same.

I am urging that these records be made public in an easily accessible and searchable database, because, if not, then it’s all window dressing, and nothing concrete will come from the push to right this obvious wrong.

This is not penny-ante money. The General Assembly - in other words, the 50 senators along with the 203 House members - has been spending on average $50 million annually, not including salaries and benefits.

Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Centre, has taken the lead in getting the Senate’s accounting off the ground. Corman said what I have been saying for years - Pennsylvanians deserve to know how their tax dollars are spent. He is calling it “absolutely the right thing to do.”

Just 29 lawmakers post some level of financial information - 11 in the Senate and 18 in the House - but it is not consistent nor does it follow the same format.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, some legislators began posting personal spending information online as early as 2007, but not many have kept up with the practice even though technology has come a long way in the intervening 14 years. Since there is no requirement to do so, and since legislators do whatever they do voluntarily, the hit-and-miss system has been next to worthless.

According to state Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the information will include all office leases, per diems, reimbursements for meals and lodging, supplies, mileage, office maintenance and much more.

Our legislators who travel more than 50 miles from their home on legislative business are entitled to a per diem (an allowance or payment for each day), which is $178, but they don’t have to provide an accounting of actual expenses by submitting receipts or other documentation, which is a really gaping accounting loophole.

“The Senate’s new expense transparency system will build on existing good government measures,” added state Sen. Mario Scavello, R-Monroe and Northampton.

This type of verification is standard in the private sector, but it is even more important when it comes to our elected and appointed public officials. Every legislator, official and public employee who spends our money must specifically account for these expenditures.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.