In November 2011, the county launched Maricopa County “OpenBooks,” a single transparency website that enabled citizens to check county revenues, budgets, expenditures, tax bills, bond ratings and other data with a few clicks of a mouse. This week, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors merged the county database into the larger, state-run Arizona financial transparency portal, Arizona Open Books.
The board approved an inter-governmental service agreement allowing the state site to host county data on the state’s official financial transparency website, managed by the state Department of Administration General Accounting Office. Maricopa County is the first county government in Arizona to appear on the state transparency website.
Visitors to Arizona OpenBooks can access specific Maricopa County data with a few clicks and search entries.
The county organzed its portal with a series of basic questions:
What are the county’s sources of revenue?
What services does the county provide?
How does my county property tax bill work?
What is Maricopa County’s bond rating?
How did Maricopa County spend its stimulus money?
What are the county’s strategic fiscal policies? How does it maintain its fiscal stability?
State Rep. Steve Montenegro, R-Litchfield Park, complimented the county on its effort. “As the sponsor of 2009 legislation to require Arizona’s governments to post spending and revenue over $5,000 to an online database, I am thrilled that Maricopa County and others throughout the state are working hard to comply with that law. Fundamentally, I believe that taxpayers have a right to know the official business of their governments, and the advent of the Internet gives us an unprecedented ability to shine light on that business.
“If a government is big enough to tax, it’s big enough to be transparent,” Montenegro said.
According to county officials, most, if not all of Maricopa County’s fiscal information has been online for years, but scattered throughout individual websites of various departments.