5/12/2016

Columbus Dispatch: Gahanna opens up its checkbook online

The Columbus Dispatch
By Alissa Widman Neese
May 12, 2016 

Gahanna residents curious about their city’s spending habits can now keep tabs on every expenditure at ohiocheckbook.com.

City officials publicly launched their landing page on Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel’s online checkbook on Wednesday afternoon.

The checkbook includes more than 46,000 individual transactions representing more than $138 million in total spending by Gahanna over the past six years. The information is contained in a searchable, user-friendly database, which can be shared on social media or saved as a file. At this time, it doesn’t offer insight into the city’s revenue streams and their origins.

Mandel launched the state’s online checkbook 18 months ago as a government transparency initiative. Reaction has been mostly positive.

Two years in a row, Ohio has been named the top state for public spending transparency, largely because of the website, according to annual reports by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

Gahanna is the sixth city in Franklin County to post its financial information at ohiocheckbook.com. The others are Bexley, Columbus, Grandview Heights, New Albany and Worthington. The county and several central Ohio school districts have also posted their data.