The city-parish has launched a new website called Open Budget BR to help citizens better track how their tax dollars are being spent.
Mayor Kip Holden announced the launch today, saying site users will be able to find out how much funding goes to each city-parish department, as well as how each department is spending its funds. The website launch comes about five months after the city-parish rolled out Open Data BR, a website with a wide variety of public data.
“Open Data BR served as a tremendous tipping point in our efforts to create a more digital, engaging and transparent city-parish government, and today we reach another milestone in those efforts with the launch of a platform that will provide additional transparency and foster understanding about one of the most complex parts of government—our city-parish budget,” Holden says in a news release. “Through easy-to-read charts and graphs, a searchable database and a clear path to track sources and uses of public funds, Open Budget BR offers a unique perspective into our local government budget that has never been seen before.”
The capital budget component of Open Budget BR features details on funding for capital programs such as the Green Light Plan and Sanitary Sewer Overflow program, as well as individual capital projects ranging from road construction projects to library and Baton Rouge River Center improvements. Meanwhile, the operating budget component includes budgetary items for city-parish departments, programs and services on a day-to-day basis.
“The tool will serve as a benchmark for financial transparency into our local government operations for years to come,” Holden says.
Open Budget BR is live and up-to-date with current-year budget information. Over time, Holden says, historical budget data will be added to the system in order for users to track trends in revenues and expenditures from year-to-year.
