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Several states are already doing that. For perhaps the best example to emulate, look no farther than our neighbor to the east.

Illinois just launched a Web site that allows any citizen to look up specific information about every economic incentive granted by the state. The site (www.corpacctportal.illinois.gov) is searchable both by program and company name. The companies receiving subsidies must report on their promised job creations and wage levels and update the information yearly.

The information even includes the names and details of companies receiving special state corporate income-tax credits. In Iowa, the law requires the names of companies claiming tax credits to be kept confidential.

Greg LeRoy, president of Good Jobs First, which advocates for accountability in job-creation incentives, said 12 states have some form of required disclosure. Illinois' appears to be the most comprehensive. That state enacted the Corporate Accountability for Tax Expenditures Act in 2003. The law is being phased in, and launch of the Web site is the latest phase.

LeRoy said provisions of the Illinois law will trigger automatically if companies fail to submit annual compliance reports, meaning proceedings begin to require companies to repay their grants. The state can grant waivers of compliance, but it must report that action to the public when it does. The state also must report annually on its efforts to recapture subsidies from companies that have not kept their job-creation promises.

The act requires the state to compile an annual Unified Economic Development Budget, designed to give the public an overall picture of how much the state is spending in its various job-creation programs. The first such compilation is due this fall.

Adoption of a similar corporate accountability law in Iowa is even more critical now, given Gov. Tom Vilsack's signature last week on a bill re-creating the Grow Iowa Values Fund. Described as the largest economic-development commitment in the state's history, the fund is expected to plow $50 million a year for 10 years into various incentives.

Iowa also should look at taking Illinois' law a step further by applying it to city and county governments as well as the state itself.

When governments give money to companies, they in effect compel taxpayers to become uncompensated investors in private enterprises. The least that taxpayers have a right to expect in return is a comprehensive and easily accessible accounting of whether their money was wisely invested.