LOS ANGELES – San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer uploaded seven years of the city’s budget information into an online tool that is supposed to make it easier to track how tax dollars are spent.
The move comes days after Faulconer released his $3.3 billion fiscal year 2017 budget. The mayor targeted infrastructure in his budget doubling since 2014 both the street repair budget to $109 million and money for capital improvement projects to $373 million.
“As we invite the public to weigh in on the new budget proposal before it’s adopted in June, the goal is to make transparency tangible so folks feel more inclined to get engaged,” Faulconer said.
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The tool features historical data for the previous six fiscal years – back to fiscal 2011 – allowing the public to compare budgets over time. The visualized information condenses thousands of pages of budget documents into a user-friendly tool.
“The enhancements to the budget visualization tool shows that the city is serious about using technology to empower our residents and employees,” said Almis Udrys, the city’s director of performance & analytics. “Rather than just dropping a 1,500-page document on our residents and calling ourselves transparent, we’re adding even more data to an online tool that makes understanding our city budget much more accessible and user-friendly.”
Faulconer launched the tool as a pilot project in 2015. More than 3,000 unique users have visited the site since last year.
The proposed fiscal 2017 budget will be formally presented to the City Council Tuesday afternoon. Over the next several weeks, the City Council and the public have opportunities to weigh in on the budget proposal before the final City Council vote in June.
