In our spotlight on business report, taxpayers may finally get a better understanding of exactly how their tax dollars are spent.

A new law signed earlier this week calls for a plain language version of the state's annual financial report.

It's put together by the Office of the State Auditor.

It's a dense document that's hard even for lawmakers to decipher, but it keeps tabs on how billions of dollars get spent in New Jersey.

Our budget and finance reporter John Reitmeyer is probably one of the few people who doesn't struggle reading that report, and he joins me now.

John, good to see you.

So what does plain language mean when we're talking about a financial document that's hundreds of pages that for most of us our eyes gloss over and right.

We try to get through it as quickly as possible because it's just that complicated.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's good to be with you today.

So the the document, the report that comes out every year is really a status check on the state's financial condition.

A lot of times we focus on just, say, one budget year, how much money is the state going to take in what's happening with taxes?

This report is more of a 30,000 foot up look at the state's finances.

So it goes beyond just what's happening in one fiscal year, and that's really important.

However, as you as you noted, it is a pretty dense it's more of an accounting document includes a lot of audited figures.

And so we'll have to see how the auditor comes up with the plain language version.

But the idea that lawmakers had was to put some of this information in less abstract terms.

Maybe we'll see a narrative or descriptions.

We'll also see comparisons of New Jersey to other states.

So putting us a little bit more in context.

So it's again, looking beyond just say that one fiscal year and really taking a bigger look at the state's overall financial condition, which, you know, can be a little different than, say, how the budget looks in one year versus how things actually are.

Absolutely.

Especially these last few years.

Is the thought, though, that then they'll get more input from the public?

I mean, did they expect the public to consume this now?

Because by and large, they're not at this point.

Yeah, I think that'll be a good question.

If if the public has been deterred from looking at the financial condition of the state, because it's really hard to find a document that you can understand that spells it all out.

The idea would be that this would be something that you could go through in the average person would be able to get a good understanding or good idea from reading this document.

It's also worth noting there will also be an appearance by the state auditor required before lawmakers every year.

Weeks before the state's budget deadline.

And so that could be another opportunity.

You know, again, we focus a lot on a budget, but if even for one day, the state's broader financial condition is brought to it gets more attention than say it does during the normal budget debates.

That would be a good thing for the average person who's trying to get a good understanding of, you know, how is the state doing financially, even if, say, one year there's enough money to give out big property tax rebates.

Well, I guess the auditor would be the right person to do that.

Yeah, we often or we always, I should say here from the treasurer's office and a lot of the attention goes there when we talk about the budget document.

But the auditor is the one who really knows where the money, where each pot is going and how it's all being shuffled and perhaps it's a little less politicized, you know, even when it's both parties, when it's the same party that has the legislature and the governor's office, there's some give and take as you know, politically.

So maybe if we take this out of that political lens and just look at the facts and figures, there'd be some value in that.

And, you know, if you think about the the average person who's doing their taxes maybe they have a good year where they they made money on an investment or got a bonus at work.

But they might still be in a lot of debt.

They might have car loan or student loans and they might have a big expenditure coming up like fixing their house or something like that.

And so this will give some someone an idea of doing the same analysis for the state.

And those numbers get really big when you're looking at the state's finances.

So we go from a couple of zeros to a lot.

A lot.

All right.

So one less excuse for everyone to use as a cop out for not being more involved in all of the state documents there.

John Reitmeyer, thanks as always.

You're welcome.