Government budgets
From Sunshine Review
A government budget is a summary of financial documents that outline the key financial facts about what a particular unit of government expects to spend and raise over a period of time, usually a year.
Informative budgets include information that breaks down revenues and expenses into useful categories that enable citizens to evaluate where their money is being spent.
Budgets can be more or less useful, depending on how they are prepared and presented to the public. For example, a budget for a school district that includes a category for administrative salaries and a category for teaching salaries is considerably more informative than a budget that only has one category for all payroll expenses.
[edit] Desirable items in useful budgets
What most people want to find on the main website of any unit of government is:
- A copy of the budget for the current fiscal year.
- A copy of the budgets for past years.
- Graphs showing spending and revenue over time.
- Searchability; a user should be able to search the database of spending.
- The checkbook register, which should include:
- The amount of the payment
- Date
- Check number
- To whom the payment was made
- What it was for
- Scan of Purchase Order or Check Request or Invoice (this provides invaluable detail including who approved the payment)
The level of searchable detail posted online should be sufficient to facilitate specific requests for further information, such as
- Addresses or other contact data for vendors
- Budgetary authority for the expenditure
- Functional expenditure category
- Sources of funds
- Links to the relevant contracts under which the payment was made
- Credit card receipts
[edit] See also
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