City Councilor Michael Canuel has filed a resolution calling for an interactive online tool that would let residents search how the city spends municipal money.
The resolution, filed Tuesday, asks the Committee on Finance to meet with the City Administrator, the Director of Financial Services, and the Director of Management Information Systems to discuss creating a public-facing portal using the city’s existing financial systems and data.
Residents would be able to search and review spending by category, department, fund, vendor, and other criteria. The administration would also be required to give the finance committee frequent updates on the project’s progress.
Canuel said the measure follows through on a campaign promise to make city finances easier for the public to understand. He argued that residents should not have to sift through long PDFs or complicated reports to see where tax dollars go, and noted that other Massachusetts communities already offer similar tools.
“This is about more than putting information online,” Canuel said. “It’s about making that information accessible, understandable, and useful to the people who pay the bills.”
The resolution is scheduled to come before the City Council on Tuesday.
