Coloradans would be able to see how their local school districts spend money under a bill approved in the Senate on Friday.

Under SB 57, the state's 178 school districts would be required, in effect, to post their checkbooks on their Web sites, showing what was spent and who received it.

Employee salaries won't be posted by name.

"People are very interested in where their governments are spending their money," said Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, the bill's chief sponsor. "Transparency is very important to the taxpayers of the state of Colorado."

Harvey's bill was approved in a series of unrecorded floor votes. A final, recorded Senate vote could come as early as Monday, after which the bill goes to the House.

Opposition came from Sen. Bob Bacon, D-Fort Collins, chairman of the Senate Education Committee. He said posting all expenditures might be costly for the districts.

"We're cutting over $100 million from our school districts (because of the recession)," Bacon said. "None of us really knows the kind of expenses the school districts are going to incur in order to comply with the legislation."

Bacon said information on expenditures can be misleading. Many expenditures aren't paid with tax revenue, but from grants or activity accounts, which are derived through student fundraising.

"So erroneous inferences can be made," Bacon said. "Sometimes a little knowledge is more dangerous than all the knowledge."

The Senate education committee last month watered down the bill, voting only to "encourage" districts to post their expenditures. The Friday votes reversed that decision.

A handful of small districts that do not have Web sites are excluded from the bill. Districts must begin posting information by Sept. 1, 2011.

Spending information is already public under the state's Open Records Act, but districts can demand that citizens file a formal request for the information, can delay responses and can charge for documents or computer disks.

Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Cindy Stevenson said the district will comply if the bill passes. "We'll make it work," she said.

Stevenson said the district is already working on a way to post spending information. It will show whether a bill was paid with tax dollars or from other sources, she said.

During the Senate debate, several lawmakers said posting the data won't be costly because it is already available electronically from the bank or credit card company.

Sen. David Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, said districts could turn the project over to high school computer whizzes.

"You let him take care of this thing, and then give him credit for the course," Schultheis said.

Stevenson said Jefferson county won't be taking that route. The project will be handled by accounting and budget professionals, she said.

morsonb@rockymountainnews.com or 303-954-5209