HARRISBURG -- Freshman state Rep. Jim Christiana, R-Beaver, unveiled legislation requiring information about government spending and contracts to be posted online in a searchable database.

He's calling his idea PennWATCH, which stands for Pennsylvania Web Accountability, Transparency and Contract Hub.

PennWATCH would allow people "to fully see where their hard-earned money is going," said Minority Leader Sam Smith, R-Punxsutawney, who is co-sponsoring the measure.

They and five other House Republican lawmakers stumped for the bill during a Capitol news conference yesterday. Of them, only one -- state Rep. Jim Marshall, R-Beaver -- posts his own legislative spending online. He's been doing it since shortly after he took office 21/2 years ago.

"Whether we post [our expenditures] online individually doesn't really solve the problem," Mr. Smith said, defending those who haven't followed Mr. Marshall's lead. "What Rep. Christiana's legislation does is ... provide a user-friendly single place to go."

Much of the information that would be provided on PennWATCH is available already in separate databases and paper files controlled by dozens of agencies and departments. Mr. Christiana wants to bring it all together.

"We need something seamless and very easy to use," Mr. Christiana said.

Twenty-six other states have similar databases. Some of those states were able to create the databases at no cost while others spent up to $300,000, Mr. Christiana said.

He said PennWATCH has the potential to save the state much more than that. The transparency would inspire greater accountability, he said.

House Democrats want to improve transparency and accountability, too, said caucus spokesman Brett Marcy.

"We find it somewhat ironic that Rep. Smith and the House Republicans are just now promoting the cause of transparency when they made no such calls for increased accountability and openness during their legacy of spending over the 12 years they were in the majority," Mr. Marcy said in an e-mail message.

Mr. Smith said there wasn't a push for it then because constituents weren't as vocal as they are now. In the last few years, reporters and investigators have uncovered examples of government corruption such as the spending of public funds on campaigns and the use of public employees to perform work on former Sen. Vince Fumo's house and farm.

"The public wants to know" how money is being spent. "They weren't saying that so loudly five years ago," when Republicans controlled the House, he said.