With a new social media campaign, Suwanee launched an open data budget website Monday to ensure city financial data is easily accessible and understandable for citizens. The campaign invited citizens to visit the website for “interactive financials coming out of the dark” using Halloween graphics.
Rather than wading through hundreds of pages of scanned documents of legal and financial information, citizens and staff see financial data contextualized in charts, graphs and images that are navigable and easy to understand.
“We’re big believers in authenticity and transparency in government, and that certainly includes our financials. At its most simplified, this is the taxpayers’ money, and it’s their right to know that we are being fiscally responsible for their dollars,” said Amie Sakmar, Suwanee’s director of Finance.
“We will be using the open budget program to replace our monthly financial reports for departments and council,” said Sakmar. “The new program will allow departments and council to obtain current data in a simple, non-technical manner. The ability to obtain current information in different formats will help decision makers be successful in monitoring financial data, understanding trends, and identify budgetary problems before they occur.”
Information: www.budget.suwanee.com, Amie Sakmar at 770-904-2797 or asakmar@suwanee.com
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