Last week the Citizens' Campaign joined the Independent Center in launching a new online tool for reviewing and comparing municipal budgets for 79 municipalities in New Jersey, with plans to have all 566 municipalities online by June.  Since the announcement, TownStats.org has received 30,000 page views and nearly 8,000 unique visitors -- visit the site now and see what everyone is talking about.

Have you always wondered how your community's finances stacks up against similarly sized municipalities? 

TownStats.org is an online database that gives you a department-by-department breakdown of the municipal budget, then lets you compare those costs to other towns.

Being able to take an accurate snapshot of our municipal finances will allow the media to more accurately report how our tax dollars are spent, and will give citizens the necessary information to make constructive proposals for sharing services and implementing other cost-savings measures.

"With TownStats.org, any citizen will be able to easily compare cost of services in a wide range of municipal budget categories," said Independent Center co-founder Mark Magyar.

In addition to budget information, TownStats.org features demographic, property tax, ratable, state aid, crime and employment data for all 566 municipalities.

Currently, detailed municipal budget information is available for 79 municipalities, including the 13 largest and at least three from each county. Approximately 30 new budgets are being added each week. 

Next Hyperlocal News Association meeting set for April 20th at 10:30 am at Rutgers-New Brunswick, to offer journalists, citizens, elected officials, and students insider tips and tools on for reviewing & reporting on how our tax dollars are spent.

As part of our continuing series of free government and political training for hyperlocal reporters, we're pleased to announce our next session will delve into the  municipal budget process. This event is free and open to the public.

Reserve your seat now.

Independent Center Founder Mark Magyar will present a live demonstration of TownStats.org, followed by a panel discussion on the municipal budget process.

Participating on the panel will be Tom Neff, Director of Local Government Services at the Department of Community Affairs, former Hoboken Councilman and municipal CFO Michael Lenz, and NewBrunswickPress.com editor Gail Ferguson Jones. 

The panel will review the municipal budget process from start to finish, so that as a reporter or citizen, you can more accurately report how tax dollars are spent, the opportunities for savings, and the impact of the 2% property cap on this years budget process.

The Hyperlocal News Association's educational series is made possible by the support of the Rita Allen Foundation.