How is the City Spending Your Tax Dollars?

Mayor Scott Galvin is hoping Woburn residents will soon get a better view of how the city is spending its money.

The City of Woburn has developed an Open Checkbook program in cooperation with Tyler Technology and with help from a Community Innovation Challenge Grant awarded by the Executive Office of Administration and Finance.

Open Checkbook “provides transparency of financial data to citizens/taxpayers. Open Checkbook gives citizens detailed view into City spending. Transparency helps bring a level of knowledge and trust that engages citizens directly and creates a collaborative atmosphere,” said Galvin.

The city received a $120,000 grant from the state as the lead community along with four other communities that resulted in a program that is “an interactive transparency module” that will allow residents access to government spending information.

The city will receive another $180,000 in a second round of funding. Woburn has to find 20 other communities that want to take part in the program.

Open Checkbook will show residents what city departments are spending on a weekly basis, as well as money spent to vendors and employees. The program will allow residents to go back 10 years.

Once other communities come onboard, it will also allow city leaders to compare what is being spent in Woburn compared to other Massachusetts communities. 

A recent state law will require all communities to have data available online by 2017, according to City Clerk William Campbell in minutes from the March 4 City Council meeting.