Consuming Government has a large section on the Rye Civic League (RCL), since it is an example of what has to happen across our nation.
That is - people in the community all pitching in to help each other stay informed and educated to what is happening. Without knowledge and information we can't effectively manage what is happening with our tax dollars.
The Civic News works because it makes information digestible, so that busy people can skim. For areas they are interested in there are links to more information. Transparency is nice, but it takes effort to make it easily consumable. We can either pay for our Government to do that for us, or we can all pitch in and do it for ourselves. https://ryecivicleague.org/?page_id=8
When you move into a new town or city, do you get a Civic Welcome package that explains how all the local government services work and what you can do to manage your tax dollars? Rye NH has this with the Citizens' Handbook: Rye Citizens' Handbook (PDF)
Budgets are "Stories." Someone once said they are "Moral" documents that say what a community's priorities are. They also need to be analyzed over several years to tell the story of what happens - see what the RCL does each year.
