Ever wonder how the city spends your money?
Now, every skeptical and frugal New Yorker can find out exactly where their hard-earned cash goes when they pay taxes, tolls and tickets.
City Comptroller John C. Liu’s newly launched web site, www.checkbooknyc.com, provides access for the public to view and track how the city spends their money. Thanks to the Internet venture, over $35 billion in city expenditures since the beginning of this year are now a click away on the site, which launched on Thursday, July 1.
Liu cited the current economic climate as one of the reasons he wanted to provide this resource to the people of New York.
“The more information we make available to the public, the more built-in incentives all of us in the city government have to save taxpayers money, which has really become more important than ever before,” said Liu. “This has already raised the bar on the way things are done in government.”
Checkbook NYC is a searchable online database of the city’s expenditures and it also provides details of contracts the city has with businesses, nonprofits and other government entities. The site even has a feature that allows users to offer ideas to the city on how to save money, increase revenue and improve efficiency.
Launching the site on July 1 is no coincidence, as it is the start of the city’s new 2011 fiscal year. Liu first announced plans for Checkbook NYC in March and credited its fruition to Simcha Felder, his Deputy Comptroller for Accountancy & Budget.
“Placing billions of dollars in spending in one easy-to-access database was no small feat,” said Liu.
The site will be updated daily and uses the city’s Financial Management Systems to identify and chronicle all city expenditures. Liu will have members of his staff correct any detectable glitches in the site’s early stages.
“It’s about open government,” said the comptroller. “It’s about intrinsic accountability. It’s about creating strong incentives to save taxpayers money. And it’s how we are determined to start a new fiscal year.”
City Councilmember Gale Brewer, chair of the Council Committee on Governmental Operations, added that unveiling the web site around the July 4 weekend is perfect when one considers the tenets this country was built upon.
“It is fitting that as we celebrate our freedom on this Fourth of July that a new era of openness has arrived,” said Brewer. “As someone who has spent many years trying to open up government data, I applaud this one-of-a-kind, single-location web site that is updated daily to show New Yorkers how their tax dollars are being spent.”
