Atlanta’s Open Checkbook: An Opportunity to Speak Softly and Carry A Big Statistic

SEPTEMBER 11, 2018 BY ROHIT MALHOTRA
PUBLISHED IN: Hypepotamus

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This was a birthday present for me, though, late by one day — so maybe it was intended for Beyonce. Either way, on September 4, the City of Atlanta launched Open Checkbook, an online portal that catalogues city expenditures and allows the public to view, sort and download that data.

If you’re an entrepreneur like me, this is a great opportunity to look at a major financial statement without accompanying anxiety (when you see an unnecessary Taco Bell purchase after One MusicFest, just as a hypothetical example).

This is a big step forward for Atlanta and should be applauded. In 2017, in the “spirit of transparency” inspired by a federal investigation, Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration filled an old Atlanta City Council chamber with 1.47 million pages of documents, a record for number of printed pages by a municipality and city-induced paper cuts (data still pending on the latter).