Fairfax County Launches Financial Transparency Website

By Beth Lawton

Fairfax County has launched a new “online checkbook” to give residents and businesses in the county better information about how the county and its school system spends money.

Residents can search for payment to vendors and other county government and public school system expenditures. The site also includes links to budget documents, audit documents, financial reports and more. The information available through the site is for the current fiscal year, which started July 1.

“While there is still much work to be done this new page gives our citizens a good look at how we spend our money and we are now the most fiscally transparent local government in Virginia,” according to a press release from the office of Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity (R-Springfield).

“My hope is that people will take the time to see where our money goes, and we can have a constructive conversation on how to do things better and more efficiently,” Herrity said.

The website is a work-in-progress, as county staff are still filtering out what can and cannot be disclosed.