Users get transparent view of city finances
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff Writer
City of Burlington City Administrator Kevin Lahner likes the idea of making the workings of the city as transparent as possible – especially when it comes to finances.
Hence the development of what is called the city’s “performance dashboard” – an online tool that residents can use to review everything from the cost of trimming trees to how much fuel city vehicles use in any given month.
“We think it’s valuable information that people should have,” said Lahner. “I think it helps our council communicate the value of our tax dollars back to the citizens.”
Lahner said the online dashboard – which contains five tabs that anyone can click into to follow revenues and expenditures – is designed to let the public know where their money goes.
“We wanted the public to know exactly where their dollars were spent,” he explained. “It’s just one of those tools.
“If anybody wants to know what value they are getting for their tax dollar, they can go and look.”
The dashboard, which is on the front page of the city’s website at www.burlington-wi.gov, offers five different areas to explore.
The first, Lahner says, is a general overview of interesting data the average taxpayer may not know.
“It’s like a snapshot of city data,” he explained.
The next two tabs are for revenues and expenditures.
“They can see all our money in and all our money out by department,” said Lahner, who added that taxpayers can then see how it aligns with other years and with the budget.
The fourth tab is a comparison of Burlington’s spending with nine other similar cities – Two Rivers, Portage, Whitewater, Little Chute, Port Washington, Fort Atkinson, Grafton, Elkhorn and Hartford.
The last tab is performance management, which analyzes what departments do what on a month-to-month basis.
“You can go right down to how much fuel we purchased to how many miles of streets we have,” Lahner said. “It shows you what’s happening with your tax dollar.”
The dashboard came in handy this year with the city in its second year of its citizen budget partners program – where city residents help coordinate the budget process. Lahner said city staff have also found it helpful.
“As we add data to this, it becomes more valuable to staff members and council members and the community,” Lahner said. “I just think that we’re going to continue along these lines.”
It may be impossible to report on everything, Lahner said, but the dashboard has received nothing but positive comments.
“So far, we’ve gotten very positive feedback on what’s out there,” said Lahner. “When it went live, we’ve gotten nothing but positive response to it.”
The Racine County Economic Development Corporation has featured it in its newsletters, and staff members are being asked to give presentations on it to other communities, Lahner said.
But most, he wanted to encourage the average, everyday taxpayer to check it out.
“It’s easy to use,” Lahner said. “And it really tells a good story.”
Readers may access the city’s website at www.burlington-wi.gov.
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