Automating Budget Transparency: How Structured Data Reveals Hidden Government Spending

Government financial data is public by law but remains inaccessible due to PDF-only distribution, making meaningful oversight nearly impossible for journalists and analysts. FiscalTrace automates the extraction and structuring of this data, enabling automatic discovery of budget anomalies—like a 262% budget increase—that would require weeks of manual analysis. This approach transforms raw public records into actionable intelligence, democratizing access to financial accountability.