Taxpayers deserve to know where their money goes, easily and transparently. Understanding government finances also shouldn\u2019t require a public records request or a finance degree.<\/p>\n
Whether you\u2019re curious about county debt, payroll trends, property tax revenues, departmental budgets, or how public dollars are invested, the Sand Dollar Snapshot makes that information available with just a few clicks. My goal is simple: make it easier for citizens to answer their own questions whenever they want, without having to navigate complicated financial reports.<\/p>\n
As Lee County\u2019s Comptroller, I want to shine a light on how local tax dollars are spent. That is why my team and I created the Sand Dollar Snapshot \u2013 an interactive website that allows users to view near real-time, multi-year financial data from the Clerk, Board of County Commissioners, and Port Authority. <\/p>\n
Since launching the Sand Dollar Snapshot earlier this year, there have been thousands of visits to the website. The response we\u2019ve gotten from the community on the Sand Dollar Snapshot is extremely positive. I\u2019ve been told by many people that they are very thankful a site like this exists. <\/p>\n
The Sand Dollar Snapshot builds on our award-winning annual financial report, The Sand Dollar, by making key financial information available year-round. One of the things I\u2019m most proud of is that the Sand Dollar Snapshot was designed and built entirely by my internal IT and Comptroller teams. It reflects the innovative culture I\u2019ve worked hard to create within the Clerk\u2019s Office and our shared commitment to making government more transparent and accessible.<\/p>\n
My team and I remain laser-focused on our mission to preserve, protect, and maintain the public records, the public funds, and the public trust. The Sand Dollar Snapshot isn\u2019t the finish line. It\u2019s another step toward fulfilling that mission because public trust isn\u2019t earned through one project. It\u2019s earned through consistently delivering better service.<\/p>\n
If you haven\u2019t had a chance yet to visit the site \u2013 I encourage you to do so. It can be found at www.leeclerk.org\/SDS. <\/p>\n
Kevin Karnes is Lee County\u2019s Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taxpayers deserve to know where their money goes, easily and transparently. Understanding government finances also shouldn\u2019t require a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-344140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}