Give citizens a view into every level of municipal finances
The Town of Greenfield is excited to announce the launch of a new easy-to-navigate Financial Transparency website, to allow citizens to easily analyze the Town’s financial data through interactive charts and graphs. Data is organized by category, department, government area, fund and vendor.
The Town of Greenfield believes this new Financial Transparency website will give citizens a view into every level of municipal finances, from fiscal year totals to individual vendor payments. “Increasing government transparency is key part of providing residents the ability to understand the inner workings of local government and a commitment we made in the Town’s Community Compact,” said Mayor William Martin. The State’s Community Compact program recognizes municipalities that are striving to become more innovative and accountable.
“It is our goal to provide as much information to our citizens, to promote a transparent government for our citizens,” said Town Accountant Elizabeth Braccia. “This website allows citizens to access financial information in a comprehensive, yet understandable format.”
Under Braccia’s direction, the Town worked with Tyler Citizen Transparency to create and configure the site. According to Braccia, the Accounting Department’s software transition allows the data to be updated weekly and provides more information for the public. “It can be hard for the public to understand where their tax dollars go, and this gives a complete picture of every check the town writes,” said Braccia. “For instance, in the vendor section residents can see each and every payment to vendors, similar to a checkbook.”
In the “Government Area” view, selecting “Education” gives a breakdown of spending by school (see photo below).
Anyone interested in looking up information can access the Financial Transparency site from the Town’s homepage (www.greenfield-ma.gov), by clicking on the icon for Open Government and then the Financial Transparency icon.
