( To check out the site - click link below )

www.townstats.org

TownStats.org will allow NJ residents to look up high-paid municipal employees and violent crime rates

Wednesday, March 02, 2011
By MEGAN DeMARCO
THE STAR LEDGER

TRENTON - This June, residents who want to see the number of municipal employees earning more than $100,000, or look up the violent crime rate in their town will have the ability to do so with a few simple clicks.

TownStats.org, launched by the nonprofit organization the Independent Center, will allow users to access municipal budget data, as well as salary, property tax, demographics and crime statistics. Currently, 54 budgets are available on the website, but leaders said at a press conference yesterday in Trenton they hope to have all 566 budgets posted by June.

The project is intended to increase government transparency, as well as highlight areas where towns might be spending more for services than other towns. Some municipalities do not post their municipal budgets online.

"Local government is supposed to be closest to the people," said Mark Magyar, co-founder of the Independent Center. "It should not be the level of government where it is most difficult to obtain accurate information."

The data draws on Department of Community Affairs data, crime reports and paper copies of municipal budgets, entered onto the website with the help of Rutgers graduate students, Magyar said.

The project is funded by grants from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the Fund for New Jersey. About $25,000 has been spent on the project so far and approximately $25,000 more is expected to be spent, said Chris Daggett, president of the foundation and independent gubernatorial candidate in 2009.

Ideally, TownStats will one day include county and school district budgets as well.

Some New Jersey newspapers, including The Star-Ledger, already maintain online databases that include municipal salary data, crime statistics and property tax information.