BECKLEY, WV (WOAY) – The City of Beckley has agreed to launch “Project Mountaineer,” an initiative by the state auditor’s office to make all financial data from political subdivisions available.
Beckley has been working for close to a year and a half to iron out all of the necessary details to begin the project. The city is one of an initial seven throughout the state to go ahead with it.
“When the state auditor first proposed this initiative, Beckley had decided to be one of the early adopters,” said City of Beckley Recorder/Treasurer Billie Trump. “We want all of our financial information transparent and available to all of the taxpayers that want it.”
All of Beckley’s financial information was previously available to its citizens once per year. Now, it will be online and accessible at any point.
“With this new website, you’ll be able to look whenever it’s convenient in real time, and see that same information,” Trump said. “And you’ll be able to be informed of how the city’s tax dollars are being spent.”
“Project Mountaineer” ensures that only aggregate business with the city will be online, and no private information will be revealed.
“Generally, private information is not going to be placed online,” Trump said. “Like, the individual tax returns for people or businesses, that’s private, that’s confidential. That’s not even inputted to the state site.”
What Trump and others are arguably most excited about is increased financial transparency and efficiency for Beckley going forward.
