JAMESTOWN — The Greeneview Local Schools District is now financially transparent.
Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel announced Feb. 1 that Greeneview has agreed to have its financial information available at OhioCheckbook.com and join the ever-growing list of cities, counties, townships, schools, library districts and other special districts to give the public full access.
“I believe the people of Greene 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,” Mandel said. “By posting local government spending online, we are empowering taxpayers across Ohio to hold public officials accountable.”
Launched by Mandel in December 2014, OhioCheckbook.com set a national standard for government transparency and for the first time in Ohio history put all state spending information on the internet. OhioCheckbook.com recently earned Ohio the number one government transparency ranking in the country for the second year in a row.
Greeneview Local Schools is the third school district in Greene County to post its spending on OhioCheckbook.com and includes more than 29,000 individual transactions that represent more than $50 million of total spending over the past three years.
On April 7, 2015 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. 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; and Common Cause Ohio.
Since its launch there have been more than 700,000 total searches on the site.
OhioCheckbook.com displays more than $564 billion in spending over the past eight years, including more than 153 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.
For more information or to view your local government website, visit the Local Government option on OhioCheckbook.com.
