JACKSON, MS--(Marketwired - Jan 5, 2017) - Mayor Tony Yarber has announced a leap forward in transparency and public engagement for the City of Jackson with the launch of JackStats Budget, which makes the full details of the City's annual budget available to the public in an interactive, dynamic, and easy-to-understand format.
"The City's budget is more than just a dry financial document," said Mayor Tony Yarber. "It is a statement of our priorities, our values, our investments. As a matter of principle, I believe we have an obligation to make those investments available to all Jacksonians, to solicit their feedback, and to deploy our resources in the most efficient and impactful way possible. I believe this tool is a key step forward in achieving that inclusive vision."
This effort extends Jackson's commitment to enhance their use of data to improve services, inform local decision making and engage residents in conjunction with the City's participation in the What Works Cities program. With JackStats Budget, anyone with an internet connection can become an expert in Jackson's finances. Budget investments, revenues, and the infrastructure master plan are all laid out in a simple, understandable format, making key information that would previously be difficult for even a veteran city employee to access available in one click. The source data is available to advanced users who want to perform additional analysis or investigation.
Jackson's legacy Cayenta financial system produces reports in Rich Text Format (RTF), and the City estimates that hundreds of hours of staff effort to convert those reports into more useful and transferrable data will be saved each year through the Open Budget tool.
"This process has not been without challenge. But, in Socrata's Public Finance Data Cloud, we found the right solution, and our JackStats Budget site went live in just a couple of weeks," said Yarber. "We are proud to have Socrata as our transparency partner. With our Open Data Portal, Performance Dashboard, and Capital Improvements Explorer, Jackson is very much at the cutting edge of transparent, digital government."
About Socrata
Socrata is the market leader in cloud-based data democratization solutions for government. Socrata's software-as-a-service data platform and cloud applications make data discoverable, usable, and actionable for public servants and the citizens they serve. Socrata unlocks government legacy systems' data silos to increase the the effectiveness of programs that improve quality of life, economic development, and government operations. Socrata solutions provide unprecedented data access and are designed and purpose-built to meet strict government standards, optimized for the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Public Sector cloud, and delivered using the proven Socrata Blueprint Success Methodology. For more information, visit www.socrata.com.
Cayenta is a registered trademark of Harris Computer Systems