In fiscal 2008, New York City will spend roughly $60 billion — that’s $7,500 for every man, woman, and child. Of that figure, it has been disclosed that the City Council annually allocates millions of dollars to phantom organizations to create a slush fund of discretionary spending with very little oversight.

The speaker of the City Council, Christine Quinn, is under scrutiny over budgetary irregularities. Ms. Quinn has claimed it took her a while even to figure out how cash was allocated. If city money is a mystery to Ms. Quinn, it’s also a mystery to the rest of us. For example, we now know that some Council members, such as Kendall Stewart, signed forms denying conflicts of interest with regard to organizations they wanted to fund; now two of Mr. Stewart’s aides have been indicted for allegedly embezzling $145,000 from a city funded organization on his list.

Speaker Quinn proposed some reforms, such as making sure the organizations requesting funds actually exist; having an “independent” compliance officer examine the requests; and putting the groups calling for funding on the Web. In response, on June 4 the city announced that the Department of Investigation will verify the existence of each entity receiving more than $5,000. The new rules impact the $360 million spent by the Council on discretionary items, but leave untouched the much greater amounts spent on infrastructure and other projects, and do not go far enough.

The whole controversy makes painfully clear the potential for corruption in the city budget; each day brings new disclosures of how unaccountable phantom organizations have been increasing budget line items for years. Even Mayor Bloomberg has come under scrutiny. The City Council looks like it is buying votes, and doing so without accountability.

New York City would benefit from taking a cue from the federal government and the 11 state governments that have employed a new weapon in the war against wasted public spending: posting the government’s actual check register in its entirety on the Web. This movement has found broad, bipartisan support.

Note, for example, the Transparency Act of 2006, which went into effect this year, and which was sponsored by Senators Coburn and Obama. Today the Federal Budget is online as a result of this act and posted at USASpending.gov. Recently, the same two senators joined forces on June 4 to propose the Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008, which would enhance the Web site to include more information and make it more easily searchable.

On the state level, Texas is at the forefront of this revolution, disclosing expenditures as little as $43. And the Texas Education Agency now posts all actual expenses on line. As a result, Texans know almost down to the penny how much was spent with which vendors each year, and their state budget is coming under real control. New York’s budget would benefit from such control. New York State faces a slowing economy — one with a budgetary deficit forecast by the governor to be $4.8 billion in 2008-2009.

New York State has started down the road toward more transparency on the Web. Thanks to Attorney General Cuomo, who launched “Project Sunlight” last year, New York posts some state contracts on the Web and identifies who sponsored which bills and who lobbied for them. And last month, as part of his Program to Eliminate the Gap in the state budget, Governor Paterson announced a plan to put summary State Department budget plans on the Web, characterizing the action as an important first step to budget transparency.

Seeking to establish credibility in his new role, the governor has created working groups to find budget cuts and he has launched a statewide economic development fund. He should also immediately take the next step towards transparency and move to put the entire state check register on line for the public to study. I am sure we would learn a lot. Speaker Silver and State Senator Bruno should welcome this change, and ratify it in the Assembly and the Senate — although this can be done just by Executive Order in the same way PEG and Project Sunshine were started.

Mr. Bloomberg is an information age entrepreneur who has made billions of dollars in the private economy by getting timely information at the speed of light to Wall Street. I cannot think of anyone more qualified to bring this revolution to New York City, thereby leaving his personal stamp on the bureaucratic behemoth New York City has become.

Imagine the opportunity for self-awareness on the part of New York City if all expenditures, including those as little as $43, were on the Web for anyone to review. Mr. Bloomberg should implement this quickly, taking advantage of the public outrage in response to the slush fund scandal, and ask a chastened City Council to join him in supporting a city run more openly and honestly.

The City Council needs to act to restore its credibility. If the older generation is reluctant to act, newer figures such as Councilman David Yassky, who is running for comptroller, can take the lead. With a Web trail, the Council would be less inclined to be fiscal libertines. The mayor should act because he knows it is the right thing to do.

To quote the Supreme Court, “sunshine is the best disinfectant.” In New York City, where the average municipal employee makes more than $50,000 per year — and roughly 20% of the work force works for the government — transparency and accountability are essential. If Texas can get the people’s transactions on the Web, certainly Mr. Bloomberg can too.

Mr. Singer is an investment advisor in New York City.