NORWOOD – Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel announced today the launch of the Norwood City Schools and Columbia Township online checkbooks on OhioCheckbook.com. In December 2014, Treasurer Mandel launched OhioCheckbook.com, which sets a new national standard for government transparency and for the first time in Ohio history puts all state spending information on the internet. OhioCheckbook.com recently earned Ohio the number one government transparency ranking in the country for a second year in a row.
The Ohio Treasurer’s office was joined at today’s announcement by Norwood City Schools Superintendent Robert Amodio and Columbia Township Trustees Chris Kritikos and Susan Hughes. Norwood City Schools is the sixth school district in Hamilton County to post their spending on OhioCheckbook.com, and Columbia Township is the third township in Hamilton County to post their spending on OhioCheckbook.com.
The following is a breakdown of today’s local government sites:
- Norwood City Schools’ online checkbook includes over 100,000 individual transactions that represent more than $178 million of total spending over the past four Fiscal Years.
- Columbia Township’s online checkbook includes over 9,400 individual transactions that represent more than $9.4 million of total spending over the past four years.
“I believe the people of Hamilton County have a right to know how their tax money is being spent, and I applaud local leaders here for partnering with my office to post the finances on OhioCheckbook.com,” said Treasurer Mandel. “By posting local government spending online, we are empowering taxpayers across Ohio to hold public officials accountable.”
“We are very excited to implement the checkbook initiative,” said Norwood City Schools Superintendent Robert Amodio. “We feel that it creates even further fiscal transparency that will allow our local resident taxpayers a further ability to view our fiscal conservancy with their tax money. As a district we believe that this initiative is in line with our commitment that we are true partners with our residents as we seek to enhance the fiscal trust that they have placed in us.”
“While some will say this is about transparency in local government, we believe users of OhioCheckbook.com will discover the determined efforts of officials and staff, year after year, to provide the best services possible to constituents at an effective cost,” said Columbia Township Administrator Michael Lemon.
On April 7, 2015 Treasurer Mandel sent a letter to 18,062 local government and school officials representing 3,962 local governments throughout the state calling on them to place their checkbook level data on OhioCheckbook.com and extending an invitation to partner with his office at no cost to local governments. These local governments include cities, counties, townships, schools, library districts and other special districts.
A large coalition of statewide and local government organizations have expressed support for OhioCheckbook.com and local government transparency, including:
- Ohio Municipal League
- Ohio Township Association
- Ohio Association of School Business Officials
- Buckeye Association of School Administrators
- County Commissioner Association of Ohio
- County Auditor Association of Ohio
- Ohio Newspaper Association
- Ohio Society of CPAs
- Buckeye Institute
- Common Cause Ohio
OhioCheckbook.com was launched on December 2, 2014, marking the first time in Ohio history when citizens could actually see every expenditure in state government. Since its launch, OhioCheckbook.com has received overwhelming support from newspapers and groups across the state and, as of June 8, 2016 there have been more than 551,000 total searches on the site.
OhioCheckbook.com displays more than $529 billion in spending over the past eight years, including more than 146 million transactions. The website includes cutting-edge features such as:
- “Google-style” contextual search capabilities, to allow users to sort by keyword, department, category or vendor;
- Fully dynamic interactive charts to drill down on state spending;
- Functionality to compare state spending year-over-year or among agencies; and,
- Capability to share charts or checks with social media networks, and direct contact for agency fiscal offices.
In March 2015, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) released their annual “Following the Money 2015” report and Treasurer Mandel earned Ohio the number one transparency ranking in the country for providing online access to government spending data. Ohio was prominently featured in the report after climbing from 46th to 1st in spending transparency as a result of Treasurer Mandel’s release of OhioCheckbook.com. Due to the launch of OhioCheckbook.com, Ohio received a perfect score of 100 points this year – the highest score in the history of the U.S. PIRG transparency rankings.
In April 2016, U.S. PIRG announced that Treasurer Mandel earned Ohio the number one government transparency ranking in the country for the second consecutive year in a row. Due to the launch of OhioCheckbook.com, Ohio again received the highest perfect score of 100 points this year – marking the second time in two years Ohio received the highest possible score in the history of the U.S. PIRG transparency rankings.
The Treasurer’s office is partnering with OpenGov, a leading Silicon Valley government technology company, to provide residents of Ohio the ability to view and search local government expenditures in a user-friendly, digital format. “Ohio is setting the standard for financial transparency on an unprecedented scale. We are excited to partner with the Treasurer’s office to bring world-class technology to communities large and small across the state,” said Zachary Bookman, CEO of OpenGov.
For more information or to view your local government website, visit the Local Government option on OhioCheckbook.com or click on:
- NorwoodCitySchools.OhioCheckbook.com;
- ColumbiaTownshipHamilton.OhioCheckbook.com.
