Treasurer Josh Mandel Announces Launch of the Village of Covington Checkbook on OhioCheckbook.com
Momentum Grows for Statewide Government Transparency with Over 1,420 Local Government and School Districts Partnering with OhioCheckbook.com
COLUMBUS – Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel announced today the launch of the Village of Covington’s online checkbook on OhioCheckbook.com. In December 2014, Treasurer Mandel launched OhioCheckbook.com, which sets a new national standard for government transparency and for the first time in Ohio history puts all state spending information on the internet. OhioCheckbook.com recently earned Ohio the number one government transparency ranking in the country for the third year in a row.
The Village of Covington is the fourth village in Miami County to post their spending on OhioCheckbook.com. The Village of Covington’s online checkbook includes over 10,000 individual transactions that represent more than $10 million in spending from 2015 to 2017.
“I believe the people of Miami 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,” said Treasurer Mandel. “By posting local government spending online, we are empowering taxpayers across Ohio to hold public officials accountable.”
“The Mayor and Council of the Village of Covington have a strong belief in transparent government,” said Michael Busse, Administrator, Village of Covington. “We believe that open checkbook helps our residents freely monitor how their tax dollars are being spent to better their community.”
On April 7, 2015 Treasurer 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. These local governments include cities, counties, townships, schools, library districts and other special districts.
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
• Common Cause Ohio
OhioCheckbook.com was launched on December 2, 2014, marking the first time in Ohio history when citizens could actually see every expenditure in state government. Since its launch, OhioCheckbook.com has received overwhelming support from newspapers and groups across the state and, as of November 12, 2018 there have been more than 1,030,000 total searches on the site.
OhioCheckbook.com displays more than $690 billion in spending over the past 11 years, including more than 186 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.
In March 2015, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) released their annual “Following the Money 2015” report and Treasurer Mandel earned Ohio the number one transparency ranking in the country for providing online access to government spending data. Ohio was prominently featured in the report after climbing from 46th to 1st in spending transparency as a result of Treasurer Mandel’s release of OhioCheckbook.com. Due to the launch of OhioCheckbook.com, Ohio received a perfect score of 100 points – the highest score in the history of the U.S. PIRG transparency rankings.
In April 2016, U.S. PIRG announced that Treasurer Mandel earned Ohio the number one government transparency ranking in the country for the second consecutive year in a row. Due to the launch of OhioCheckbook.com, Ohio again received the highest perfect score of 100 points – marking the second time in two years Ohio received the highest possible score in the history of the U.S. PIRG transparency rankings.
In April 2018, Ohio once again earned the number one ranking in the country for government transparency for the third consecutive year by U.S. PIRG. Due to OhioCheckbook.com, Ohio again received the highest score in the nation. U.S. PIRG cited Ohio’s addition of local governments, pension funds and public universities to OhioCheckbook.com as a primary reason for the high ranking, and praised Ohio for setting the national standard for state spending transparency.
The Treasurer’s office is partnering with OpenGov, a leading Silicon Valley government technology company, to provide residents of Ohio the ability to view and search local government expenditures in a user-friendly, digital format. “Ohio is setting the standard for financial transparency on an unprecedented scale. We are excited to partner with the Treasurer’s office to bring world-class technology to communities large and small across the state,” said Zachary Bookman, CEO of OpenGov.
For more information or to view your local government website, visit the Local Government option on OhioCheckbook.com or click on Covington.OhioCheckbook.com.