The old saying goes, “Nothing is certain but death and taxes.”

But are your tax dollars going where they’re supposed to? A newly-formed legislative committee at the state Capitol aims to find out.

Connecticut lawmakers oversee tens of billions of dollars – your tax dollars. But few people know where their money goes.

“I don’t think about it,” said Gabriel McMahon, of Redding. “If I thought about it, it would upset me.”

Soon, you’ll have a better idea. A new legislative committee will focus on government oversight and accountability, including public hearings throughout the year.

State Rep. Lucy Dathan (D-Norwalk) – a corporate accountant by trade – will co-chair the panel.

“Connecticut is an expensive place to live, and we need to make sure that folks are seeing how their tax dollars are working,” she said.

The new committee will have plenty to focus on.

A massive renovation at the State Pier in New London – designed to position Connecticut as a staging area for offshore wind farms – is more than $210 million over budget. At one point, the company overseeing the project recommended itself for lucrative subcontracts. The state comptroller is also investigating questionable personal spending by Connecticut State Colleges and Universities chancellor Terrence Cheng.

State Sen. Ryan Fazio (R-Greenwich) thinks lawmakers should have more direct control over quasi-public agencies like the Connecticut Port Authority, which oversees the State Pier project.

“I don’t understand how pitchforks don’t come out on that sort of thing,” Fazio said. “That’s why Connecticut has high taxes, because you see mistakes being made – waste like the State Pier.”

Connecticut House Speaker Matt Ritter (D-Hartford) expects the government oversight panel to meet year-round, drilling down on state agency contracts and audits.

“The auditors are one Republican and one Democrat,” he said. “They’ll audit an agency. And sometimes, we just don’t have the time – especially when we’re not in session – to review it, interview people, maybe recommend changes.”

It’s not just about money that’s being spent, but funds that haven’t been used. Half of all local housing vouchers went unused due to red tape and a lack of oversight, according to a 2022 investigation from Hearst Connecticut Media.

“We really want to make sure that what we intended to do actually is able to get followed through,” Dathan said.

Fazio thinks transparency will lead to better spending practices.

“Hearings and oversight, in and of themselves, have an effect because the public, the media, gets to pay attention in a more acute fashion,” he said.

Voters like McMahon like the idea, too.

“As a project manager for a local landscape construction firm, my responsibility is to account for the money that comes in, where it’s spent,” he said. “That’s what I’m graded on, so our elected representatives should be held to the same standard.”

The oversight panel is being spun off the existing Government Administration and Elections Committee, which will now focus exclusively on voting issues. Newly elected state Sen. Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox (D-Trumbull) will lead the group along with Dathan.