Taxpayers have the right to know where their money is being spent. Yet in Will County, it’s extremely difficult to find how your money is being spent, and when you find the right reports, they’re so complicated even financial professionals like me have trouble understanding them.

True transparency means when the average citizens wants to find information, they can find it easily and it makes common sense. That’s the level at which we should be providing information to the public on where their money is going and what they’re getting out of it.

The first step in this process is making our website cleaner and easier to navigate. There should be direct links to the most frequently requested pages. Information should be shared between the various county websites, or ideally we just have one website so we’re more efficient and accessible. People shouldn’t be buried in information, they should be able to select what they need and be provided the necessary information.

Then, our reports need to be cleaned up. Instead of general ledger printouts that look like chicken scratch to the public, we need to develop clean and understandable monthly reports. Programs should be broken out, with details provided by the various departments on the status of each of those programs.

My goal is to fully equip the public with information on how their money is being spent and encourage them to become active participants in their county government. Since county residents are funding government with their tax dollars, they are shareholders and deserve the opportunity to be more actively involved in their government.