If you searched for the “MOARTAR portal,” you were almost certainly looking for Missouri’s state spending transparency site, which is actually called the Missouri Accountability Portal, or MAP. The term “MOARTAR” doesn’t appear in any Missouri statute or official state resource. The real portal lives at mapyourtaxes.mo.gov, it’s free, and it publishes financial transactions for state agencies, political subdivisions, and public schools on every state business day.1Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Revised Statutes Title IV, Chapter 37, Section 37-850 – Portal to Be Maintained, Database, Contents, Updating
MAP is maintained by the Office of Administration under Missouri Revised Statute Section 37.850, which requires the database to be updated every state business day and to serve as the primary source of information about Missouri government activity.1Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Revised Statutes Title IV, Chapter 37, Section 37-850 – Portal to Be Maintained, Database, Contents, Updating Everything below describes how to use it.
What You Can Look Up on MAP
The homepage sorts the data into category buttons. You pick a category first, then the site shows you the filters that make sense for that data. There is no single search bar that queries everything at once, so knowing which bucket you want saves time.
- Employee Salaries: Gross pay by agency, position title, or employee name, covering the last pay cycle and year-to-date totals. These are gross figures, so they include overtime and other compensation, not just base salary.2Missouri Accountability Portal. Missouri Accountability Portal – Employees
- Expenditures: State agency spending on goods and services, searchable by agency, spending category, contract, or vendor name.
- Federal Grants: Federal dollars received by state agencies.
- Bonds: Debt issued by political subdivisions, universities, school districts, and charter schools.
- Tax Credits: Economic development tax credit distributions.
- Budget Restrictions: Funds the governor has withheld from the state operating budget.
- Local Government Expenditures: Spending data reported by political subdivisions.
- Financial Reports: Aggregated financial statements and reports.
How to Search It
Before you start, pin down two things: the category you want, and the fiscal year. Missouri’s fiscal year runs July 1 through June 30, so “Fiscal Year 2026” means July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026. Picking the wrong year is the most common reason searches come back empty.
Vendor and Expenditure Searches
Expenditures is where most people spend their time. MAP’s advanced vendor search lets you filter by agency, spending category, contract, or vendor name.3Missouri Accountability Portal. Advanced Vendor Search – Missouri Accountability Portal If you know the exact name a company uses when contracting with the state, enter it in the vendor field. If you only know the agency, start there and scroll the vendors that received payments. Expenditure pages also include a download option if you want to pull the data into a spreadsheet.
Employee Salary Searches
Salary records are searchable by agency, position title, or individual name.2Missouri Accountability Portal. Missouri Accountability Portal – Employees Remember the gross-pay point: two employees with the same job title can show very different numbers because one worked more overtime or picked up supplemental pay. Compare carefully if you’re using the data to benchmark positions.
Federal Grants and Budget Withholdings
Two specific lookups are worth knowing about because searchers often don’t realize they’re available.
For federal grants of one million dollars or more, Section 33.087 requires state agencies to post the dollar amount, the federal agency that provided the money, the grant’s purpose, and any transfers of those funds to other state agencies along with the purpose of each transfer. Updates must appear within 30 days of receipt or transfer.4Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Revised Statutes of Missouri, RSMo Section 33.087 If one agency receives federal money and passes a portion to another, the receiving agency has to report back on how the transferred dollars were spent and any measurable impact.
For budget withholdings, when the governor withholds or releases funds from the state operating budget under Article IV, Section 27 of the Missouri Constitution, Section 37.850 requires a report to be conspicuously posted on MAP, searchable both by individual fund and by the total amount withheld or released.1Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Revised Statutes Title IV, Chapter 37, Section 37-850 – Portal to Be Maintained, Database, Contents, Updating You can see those decisions on the portal without filing a records request.
When the Portal Doesn’t Have What You Need
MAP covers the data categories listed above, but it doesn’t contain every document the state produces. If you need a specific contract, an internal memo, or any record that isn’t on the portal, Missouri’s Sunshine Law (Chapter 610) lets you request it directly from the agency.
Under Section 610.023, every public governmental body must appoint a records custodian and make public records available for inspection and copying. The custodian has until the end of the third business day to produce the records. If there’s a delay, you’re entitled to a written explanation and a specific date when the records will be available. If the request is denied, you can demand a written statement citing the specific legal provision that justifies the denial.5Justia Law. Missouri Revised Statutes Title XXXIX, Chapter 610 – Governmental Bodies and Records
Fees can’t exceed the actual cost of searching for and duplicating the records, with staff-time charges tied to the average pay rate of the employees involved. There’s no set per-page fee in the law. If a quoted fee seems unreasonable, Section 610.026’s actual-cost standard is the provision to cite when you push back.