Common Cents

A web app that transforms your federal tax contribution into a personalized, interactive receipt — then connects that spending to political decisions and your elected representatives.

Goal

Make government spending personal, understandable, and actionable. Encourage civic engagement by showing people exactly where their tax dollars go and who decided it.

Design Philosophy

• Personalization — data reflects your taxes and your representatives
• Clarity — simplify complex government spending into clear categories and explanations
• Emotional engagement — meaningful comparisons, tradeoffs, local impacts, voting decisions
• Actionability — every insight leads to a potential action: learn more, explore deeper, contact representatives
• Visual appeal — colorful, animated, interactive. Civic tech doesn't have to be dull.

Getting Started

npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000.

See .env.example for optional environment variables (Upstash Redis, Geocodio, Congress.gov). The app works without any env vars — it falls back to in-memory counters and sample representative data.

Data Sources

Domain	Source	Status
Budget	OMB Historical Tables, USASpending.gov	Curated FY2024 data
Tax brackets	IRS Rev. Proc. 2023-34 (2024)	Implemented
Representatives	Geocodio API	Live — ZIP → exact legislators
Bills	Congress.gov API	Planned — currently manually curated
Votes	Congress.gov / ProPublica API	Planned — currently sample data
Cost estimates	CBO	Manual curation

Transparency note: The app estimates how a user's taxes would be distributed based on overall federal spending proportions. It does not track exact individual tax dollars. This methodology is clearly explained to users.

Core User Flow

1. Input — Income, filing status, ZIP code. No account required.
2. Receipt — Animated, interactive breakdown of where your tax dollars go across 14 budget categories.
3. Drill-down — Expand any category to see subcategories, agencies, and related legislation.
4. Bills — See active legislation that could change spending, with community engagement counters.
5. Representatives — View your senators and house rep, their contact info, and how they voted.
6. Take action — Call or email your rep with generated scripts tied to specific spending issues.

MVP Scope

• Tax estimation (income tax + FICA, standard deduction)
• Interactive spending receipt with donut chart
• Expandable line items with subcategory breakdowns
• Bills panel with engagement counters (Upstash Redis)
• Live representative lookup by ZIP (Geocodio)
• Representative contact info and re-election tracking
• URL persistence for shareable receipts
• Contact scripts for calling/emailing reps
• Live bill tracking and vote records (Congress.gov API)
• Campaign finance data (OpenSecrets/FEC)

Future Features

API-Backed (automatable with live data)

Feature	API	Notes
Campaign finance	OpenSecrets, FEC	"Your rep received $X from Y industry and voted YES on Z"
Voter registration	Vote.org, TurboVote	Registration check, absentee requests, polling places
Election reminders	Google Civic Info, BallotReady	Upcoming elections, ballot measures
Public comment periods	Regulations.gov	Open federal rulemaking — comments actually influence policy
Town hall tracker	Town Hall Project	In-person and virtual events by district

Computed from Existing Data

Feature	Description
Voting alignment scorecard	"Your rep voted with your priorities X% of the time"
Year-over-year comparisons	Spending trend visualization across fiscal years
"What if?" budget sliders	Reallocate your tax dollars and see tradeoffs
Social sharing	Share your receipt — "I paid $X toward defense, $Y toward education"

Requires Manual Curation

Feature	Description
State & local tracking	No unified API — varies by state
Contractor-level spending	USASpending.gov has some data, needs curation
State-level tax receipt	Per-state budget data needed

Documentation

• ARCHITECTURE.md — System design, data flows, architectural constraints
• CODEBASE_MAP.md — File-by-file navigation guide, component hierarchy
• CLAUDE.md — Engineering protocol and project context

Long-Term Vision

Build a public transparency tool that helps citizens understand where government money flows, how policy decisions shape those flows, and how they can influence those decisions through democratic participation.