YourMoney.NJ.Gov New Jersey s Transparency Center. State of New Jersey

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1 2011 NASCIO Recognition Award Nomination New Jersey Department of the Treasury and New Jersey Office of Information Technology YourMoney.NJ.Gov New Jersey s Transparency Center Category: Open Government Initiatives State of New Jersey Page 1 of 5

2 B. Executive Summary YourMoney.NJ.Gov ( is New Jersey s first comprehensive government transparency center. Its implementation stemmed from Governor Chris Christie s Executive Order #8, issued on his first day in office. Aside from budget documents and annual reports, in the past New Jersey did not offer an inclusive resource to examine the State s finances. For the first time, financial information concerning independent State authorities and commissions, where a large share of the State s public debt was incurred, is now accessible. Planning for the new website started in May 2010 and from the outset the team of technological, financial, and policy experts assigned to the project by the Department of the Treasury, along with management and staff from the NJ Office of IT (OIT), was determined to give visitors the in-depth information they would need to easily track how taxpayer money was being spent. The team assessed and leveraged existing resources to launch in July Since then, YourMoney.NJ.Gov has released: 3.1 million property tax records 110,281 public employee payroll records Performance budgeting data from twenty-two agencies Seven years of State spending and revenue data 276,299 pension recipient records Data from nineteen independent authorities Purchasing data for 7,994 state vendors Tools such as search, sort, drill-through, and download have been incorporated into its design to help citizens explore and analyze financial data both on the operation of State agencies and departments and also on the full range of State authorities in ways that will provide meaningful insight into the effectiveness of government spending. Page 2 of 5

3 C. Description of Business Problem and Solution YourMoney.NJ.Gov ( is New Jersey s first comprehensive government transparency center. Its implementation stemmed from Governor Chris Christie s Executive Order #8, issued on his first day in office. Historically there has been no single source from which citizens can identify and evaluate revenues and expenditures of funds derived from State taxes, fees and other revenues and debts of the State of New Jersey; compare spending practices, tax policies and tax rates of similarly situated states, school districts and municipalities, and access public documents in electronic format (NJ Exec. Order No , Jan. 20, 2010). In New Jersey, only a partial picture of State spending had been available to taxpayers and citizens through budget documents. Independent State authorities and commissions, where a large share of the State s public debt was incurred, operated in a realm largely beyond public scrutiny. And no analytic tools were available to measure how effectively individual government agencies were carrying out their missions or spending the dollars assigned to them. The only recourse available to members of the public who wanted to probe State finances or the operations of State government was the State s Open Public Records Act (OPRA). The OPRA process, however, is burdensome and expensive compared to Web-based search agents and data storage, and the records OPRA produces are generally not searchable. Governor Christie s Executive Order called for creating a new website that would provide a central location for commonly sought documents relating to State finances and specifically required that it provide data on revenue, spending, payroll, and public debt in a documented and easy-to-use way. Planning for the new website started in May 2010 and from the outset the team of technological, financial and policy experts assigned to the project by the Department of the Treasury, along with management and staff from the NJ Office of IT (OIT), was determined to give visitors the in-depth information they would need to easily track how taxpayer money was being spent. Well before the website was launched in July 2010, tools such as search, sort, drill-through, and download had been incorporated into its design to help citizens explore and analyze financial data both on the operation of State agencies and departments and also on the full range of State authorities in ways that would provide meaningful insight into the effectiveness of government spending. YourMoney.NJ.Gov leveraged existing technologies in which the state of New Jersey had previously invested. These include: The New Jersey Enterprise Data Warehouse (NJEDW), which runs on Oracle database software hosted on IBM servers. This environment was Page 3 of 5

4 already in place and continues to be enhanced and expanded. The data warehouse is used to stage the data published on YourMoney.NJ.Gov. Application Express (ApEx) is a rapid development product from Oracle used to produce the online query and reporting capabilities. The State already owned this product, and it is co-hosted on the same servers as the Oracle database. BusinessObjects is a reporting tool that is used to produce some of the collateral charts and reports. The State already owned this product. The web site is hosted on the State s existing NJ.Gov infrastructure running on Oracle Sun Solaris servers. This environment was already in place. Web developers used existing tools for development of the web site. The Geographic Information Systems (GISs) are hosted on a combination of Dell and IBM servers running Esri (Environmental Systems Research Institute) GIS software and Oracle database software. This environment was already in place and continues to be enhanced and expanded. Since the YourMoney.NJ.Gov launch, new domains have been released on a regular basis using a rapid application development methodology. These include: Spending, revenue, purchasing, payroll, and debt data for the executive branch Spending, revenue, and payroll data for independent authorities and commissions Statewide pensions data for retirees Statewide property tax data, including GIS-based mapping of property parcels Performance-based budgeting data for the Executive Branch, including core mission areas, key performance indicators, and supporting documentation Budget and financial supporting documentation Regular video messages from the Governor, the Treasurer, and other officials on the need for government transparency and the features on the site Feedback opportunity for members of the public to submit new ideas and recommendations D. Significance of the Project Providing meaningful, timely information was central to the design of the site. The data on the site is refreshed monthly, quarterly, or annually, as appropriate. It is also available for the current year and the previous complete year. In addition, several data sets are presented for a seven-year comparison at a summary level. The data presented includes all relevant components of the State s finances that would be useful Page 4 of 5

5 for taxpayers, interest groups, news organizations, and government executives and administrators. It includes: 3.1 million property tax records 110,281 public employee payroll records Performance budgeting data from twenty-two agencies Seven years of State spending and revenue data 276,299 pension recipient records Data from nineteen independent authorities Purchasing data for 7,994 state vendors One of the site s most notable achievements was aggregating data from independent authorities and commissions for the first time and making it available in a readily accessible form. These entities are commonly referred to as New Jersey s shadow government. Had Governor Christie not made transparency in government one of the top priorities of his administration, the secrecy surrounding this sector of government and its lack of accountability to the public would have continued to exist. Another achievement was the ability to asses and leverage existing resources and deliver on-time within a defined scope. The financial categories and the frequency of the release had been outlined in Governor Christie s Executive Order. The opportunity to expand the scope would only occur once all objectives were delivered. Information regarding revenue, expenditures, purchasing, payroll, debt, and the Governor s Performance Center comprised the debut categories. Later, the team added to the mix information on Property Tax Records and Pension applications. To this day, the team is constantly looking for opportunities to expand. In sum, New Jersey had been a state that looked reluctantly towards transparency, and now, less than a year later, it can serve as a model regarding what is possible. E. Benefit of the Project The NASCIO State CIO Priorities this project supports includes Nos. 1, 2, 9, and 10. There has been continual growth in the content and viewership of the transparency site since it launched. To date, YourMoney.NJ.Gov has received over 200,000 visits, with 65% coming from outside State government. The site also offers a channel for feedback and already has garnered over 200 comments for consideration from members of the public; in addition, the subscription to alerts has expanded to over 460 people. The availability of this data has aided research from reporters on stories regarding pension and overtime cost, assisted agencies working on staffing plans, and greatly reduced the time agencies spend on filling or requesting OPRA report on finances. The statistics prove that this site has filled a void. There is a strong interest and need among members of the public to view and understand State finances. Page 5 of 5