Portal offers residents a trove of information

A new online data portal grants Tuscaloosa residents access to the details of City Hall spending.

Now available at data.tuscaloosa.com, the free-to-access web page is the first of its kind for a municipality in Alabama.

Announced last year, this online portal was established to provide information and data on the city’s budgetary revenues and spending as well as up-to-date crime reports and demographics for Tuscaloosa, among other features.

Mayor Walter Maddox said it helps fulfill his goal of making information more readily available to his constituents while allowing taxpayers to see how funds are budgeted and, ultimately, where they are spent.

“We are strengthening accountability by digitally opening the doors of City Hall,” Maddox said in a news release announcing the portal’s availability. “Our goal is to improve public trust and citizen engagement by simplifying government.

“This is a huge leap for Tuscaloosa to be more open, efficient and effective when serving the people of Tuscaloosa, but it’s only the first of many.”

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