New Castle County revamps open checkbook website [video]

 Users of New Castle County's new open checkbook website will be able to see how county government spends its money. (photo via checkbook.nccde.org)

Users of New Castle County's new open checkbook website will be able to see how county government spends its money. (photo via checkbook.nccde.org)

Responding to concerns he heard during last year’s campaign, NCCo County Executive Matt Meyer led the relaunch of a website to allow residents to get a detailed look at how the county spends its money.

How did New Castle County spend $336 million in the past fiscal year? You can see for yourself on the county’s newly relaunched checkbook.nccde.org website. From $53.7 million spent on the county’s police department ($1.6 million of which went to overtime pay) to the $19,144 spent on feed for horses at Carousel Park, the website allows users to take a deep dive into county finances.

New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer said he heard a lot of complaints about the lack of transparency in county government during last year’s campaign against then County Exec. Tom Gordon.

“They didn’t have trust in their local government institutions, their local government leaders,” Meyer said of those complaints. “It impressed upon me the tremendous importance of transparency in governance.”

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“What we’re doing today is taking a step that makes our county governance the most transparent it’s ever been in its history,” Meyer said. “We’re announcing a tool that makes it very easy for any resident of the county- or actually anyone anywhere- to see how we are spending your taxpayer money.”

Users of the website can click on any segment of county government and dig into the past year’s spending for that agency. Additional years will be added.

“It’s my personal belief that just as you can go online and see your expenditures that you’ve made through your bank, you should be able to go online and see how your tax money is being spent.”

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