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Utah received a B for transparency in government spending in a report card issued Wednesday by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund.

Its overall score of 86 out of 100 tied for No. 22 among the 50 states.

"Utah is on the way to becoming a leader," Phineas Baxandall, an analyst with the organization, said in a news release.

The group said Utah this year improved its financial transparency site, transparent.utah.gov, where state and local governments provide data about spending.

But, the report added, Utah's site would be greatly improved with the addition of a "bulk download" function to more easily analyze information by agency.

"This year, most states have continued to make their budgets more open to the public," Baxandall said, "allowing users to better scrutinize how the government uses their tax dollars."

The group gave each state a grade of A to F based on the content and ease-of-use of their transparency websites. The states earning A's cq this year: Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Oregon, Louisiana, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Montana, New York, Texas and South Dakota.