Opening the door to financial transparency

In recent months, both Bloomfield Township and Birmingham have created portals on their websites which provide financial transparency for the public. These finance tools allow residents access to a much greater understanding of where the municipality's money is going, how it's budgeted, the actual revenues and expenditures, vendor payments, and other pertinent information.

In general, the financial transparency portals are easy to access, use and understand. We have to say, after years and years of pouring over annual budgets, accounts, revenue sharing programs and various funds, we are very pleased to see the move to accessibility for the public.

Any move to greater transparency is a good thing. And the financial portals are a good thing.

Jason Theis, Bloomfield Township Finance Director, has explained that that Open Finance, their portal, is a new tool that allows financial transparency for residents. “This new program allows users the ability to access and act on financial data to build personalized experiences and stay informed on all fiscal matters.”

The portal allows users to navigate through financial data, tables, charts and graphs. Bloomfield Township explains the information is highly interactive to deliver a better understanding of the revenues collected and how those revenues are utilized in providing their citizens with the very best in public services.

Included on the site is a financial summary, inclusive of revenue budgeted and actual revenues, and expenditure budget, including adopted, amended and actual expenditures, so residents can see in real time what is being spent on what, and how much is coming in and from where. Also provided are the top revenue categories by function, such as public safety, general government, public works, debt service, community enrichment and judicial.

The site is updated on a weekly basis, and includes data from prior fiscal years for comparative purposes. It includes information on revenues, expenditures and vendor payments.

In Birmingham, the financial transparency portal can easily be accessed at birminghammi.opengov.com. The portal provides detailed insights into all of Birmingham's city funds, departments, tax rates, overall property values and retirement funding levels. It is maintained by the city's finance department, which is responsible for accounting, budgeting, cash management, collection and billing, debt administration and purchasing.

Birmingham provides annual comparisons for several years, year-by-year, from 2019-2020 to 2024-2025. There are reports on overall city financial data, general fund information, ice arena information, golf courses financial information, the parking system financial information, road information, homestead tax rates, property values, and defined benefit retirement and retiree health care plans.

For those with the time and interest to peruse and dig deep into the weeds of their municipality's financial records, they're now all at their fingertips. And that's a very good thing.