Taxpayers in Erie County can now get a better look at how their tax dollars are being spent. County Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw says a new webpage called The Taxpayer Checkbook is now available for the public to see the county's expenses for 2014. Mychajliw says his office is especially interested in the costs of the November storm.
"We're going to do our due diligence with every single receipt to make sure that money was spent in an appropriate manner," said Mychajliw at a news conference Friday morning..
So far, Mychajliw says county departments are planning to spend about $686,000 on the storm, mostly on employee overtime. He says that cost is expected to grow.
Mychajliw says his office received a "very significant" bill from a grocery store.
"We have questions for the purchase department and different departments within county government to make sure that that was storm-related," said Mychajliw.
The website also shows the county's debt, which is currently about $695 million.