City of Minneapolis launches interactive financial transparency platform

MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 9, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The City of Minneapolis today launched a new financial transparency platform powered by OpenGov.com that provides residents and city officials unprecedented access to the City's finances. Minneapolis is the largest city in the Midwest to launch an OpenGov platform.  The powerful visualization software transforms volumes of raw financial data into actionable insight and information, enabling better analysis and understanding of the City's budget. The platform can be accessed through the City's website or directly at https://minneapolismn.opengov.com/.

Minneapolis residents and staff can now explore long-term budget trends and quickly drill down into specific financial detail in an intuitive, user-friendly format. Residents can easily answer questions such as, "what did the City spend on capital improvement projects?" or "How has City spending on police changed over the past seven years?" and download or share the data on social media.

Visitors to the Minneapolis platform can access the City's recently approved 2015 budget, compare it to previous years dating to 2008 and instantly view revenues and expenses by fund, department and expense type on interactive graphs.  The current year report provides insight into spending and revenues year-to-date. Beyond sharing information with the public, the City of Minneapolis can also use this platform internally to create custom reports, manage operations to budget, and keep administrators informed.

"Today marks a big leap forward in increasing financial transparency in Minneapolis," said Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges. "Making this data available online in an easily accessible format will not only result in a more informed public, but will also help City leaders and staff digest complex financial information to help run the city better."

"Understanding the City budget and other City financial information should not be a challenge to people seeking out this information," said City Council member and chair of the Ways & Means committee John Quincy. "We've heard from residents, even City leaders and staff, that they wanted an easy to use tool that would show how the City manages its finances and I want to thank staff and OpenGov for their work in bringing this tool to life."

"The City of Minneapolis is setting the standard for transparent government in the Midwest and across the U.S.," said Zachary Bookman, CEO and co-founder of OpenGov.  "It has been a pleasure working with City staff to craft an extremely thorough, detailed platform that demonstrates the City's commitment to efficient and transparent government."

With the launch of this financial transparency platform and last month's launch of the City's open data portal more City data is easily available to the public than ever before. Before now, if residents or reporters wanted much of this information, they had to formally request it from the City.

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SOURCE OpenGov