A Philadelphia engineer published visual tools to help residents navigate the city’s newly approved budget.

Aaron Couch developed Philly Budget Data, a website that uses open-source data visualization tools to create charts that show how Philadelphia’s city budget breaks down. 

“The tools were available, but not being utilized, but the data wasn’t really accessible because the city doesn’t provide it in a machine-readable or accessible format.”

Aaron Couch, Philly Budget Data

“I’m able to provide this view for folks that are interested in the city budget, that want to get a better understanding of it, where the money’s being used, how it’s being allocated,” he told Technical.ly. “These open source tools made that a lot easier.” 

Couch produced two separate features – bubble charts visualizing fiscal years 2027 and 2026 and a breakdown of budget trends over time — inspired by past data efforts.

The bubble charts break down the budget by category and show how much the funding has changed from the previous year. Another chart shows where the money for this year’s budget is coming from, like the General Fund and the Grants Revenue Fund.

The site also features what he calls a longitudinal budget view to showcase the budget breakdown for each year going back to 2019 and shows how the numbers have changed over the years. 

For example, you can see that funding for the police department has steadily increased, while money for arts and culture was increasing a few years ago, before dropping this year. 

The site also includes resources about Philadelphia’s budgeting cycle and information about participatory budgeting processes. Couch said he wants to keep the site up-to-date going forward and add features that would allow people to consider how they would like the funding to be allocated. 

While he published the site relatively late in this year’s budget cycle, many people don’t realize that it’s typically a year-long process as departments start advocating for their needs, Couch said. 

Mayor Cherelle Parker signed the $7.1 billion budget for fiscal year 2027 last week after back-and-forth about school district funding and proposed taxes on rideshare users, delivery services and short-term rentals. The new budget will go into effect July 1. 

How open data tools can make city budgets more accessible

Overall, the project is a testament to how open source tools can make information more accessible to the general public, Couch said. 

The bubble charts are based on a tool built by the Swiss chapter of the Open Knowledge Foundation, a global organization that creates open data resources. Years ago, Couch said, the city used the tool to share its budget data, and the GitHub repository containing the source code for those charts is still available.

For the new budget, Couch pulled data from PDFs published by the city and entered it into the existing tool.

“The tools were available, but not being utilized, but the data wasn’t really accessible because the city doesn’t provide it in a machine-readable or accessible format,” he said. “So I created that mini data extraction layer and was able to publish these bubble charts.” 

The site’s other visualization, which tracks budget changes over time, was built with an open-source tool developed by the civic tech company DataMade.

Couch’s background is in software engineering and open data, and he has participated in local activism focused on a more open budgeting process. This winter, he was involved in a working group with the advocacy group People’s Budget Office and put his skills to use. 

He hopes that these visualization tools help Philadelphians think about where the city’s money is going and how it aligns with their needs and values, he said. 

“It’s a baseline for folks to be able to get a better view into how the city is allocating funds,” Couch said. “I’m hoping that enables folks to make smart choices and advocacy around the city budget.”