Youngstown will unveil a website giving people access to the city’s finances

By David Skolnick

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The city will unveil a website today giving people access to Youngstown’s finances from the comfort of their homes.

The city’s “Open Finance Portal” – www.youngstownohio.gov/openfinance – “transforms complex financial data into an interactive, digital format that enables better analysis and understanding of our city’s finances,” said Mayor John A. McNally. “The intuitive design makes it easier to explore how taxpayer money is collected and spent.”

The city first discussed the website about 10 months ago, meeting with OpenGov, an organization that worked with the Ohio Treasurer’s Office to put the state’s OhioCheckbook.com and local government entities online.

The city’s website not only will put Youngstown’s checkbook online, but also will include all of its expenditures, McNally said.

The website will include all of 2014 and nearly all of 2015, and initially will be three months behind the city’s actual expenses and revenues, said McNally, who added that it soon will lag only by a month or two.

“This will be unrestricted access to the city’s financial records,” he said. “You can go department by department online and create pie charts or bar graphs.”

The city paid $11,000 to OpenGov to primarily create the website with some administrative duties included, McNally said.

“This will increase the public’s access to our finances,” he said.