Transparency

Hoboken residents have no way of knowing, without significant time and expense, exactly how their tax dollars are spent and how spending decisions are made. Most members of the City Council do not know such basic things as how the City chooses which light bulbs to purchase for its buildings and roads.

One means of creating greater citizen access to our local government would be through an Ordinance that mandates the Hoboken Finance Department to maintain a free and searchable website – a “Google for local government” — that would enable residents to type in key words to learn details about where tax dollars go, and judge for themselves whether taxes are being spent wisely. All supporting documents for the municipal budget should be available and searchable. The online search engine would allow a Hoboken resident to look up any company, contractor, developer, organization or other entity receiving a city contract or other financial assistance, to determine how tax dollars are being spent.

This is a good-government initiative, already implemented at the federal level, designed to give average citizens access to information previously known only to insiders. This initiative would shed light on how our tax dollars are being spent and provide a powerful disinfectant to corruption and cronyism. An open government should be an inclusive government that brings the citizens into the decision making processes that affect themselves and other Hobokenites.

Introducing Transparency to municipal government