Following a number of requests from readers, the Herald is releasing the total dataset of purchases made by state companies utilizing their procurement playing cards, or P-Playing cards, as offered by the state comptroller’s workplace following the paper’s freedom of data request.
You may obtain the dataset as an editable excel file right here.
The Herald was ready to make use of this knowledge to generate a number of current information tales.
Herald reporter Chris Van Buskirk used it to look at spending by state companies in Las Vegas and elsewhere for a narrative titled “Public agencies in Mass. spent thousands at casinos using taxpayer-funded credit cards,” and for one more piece analyzing spending by the Governor’s cupboard workers titled “Healey’s tech secretary used taxpayer-funded bank cards to rent high-end chauffeurs“.
Indicted Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins was discovered to have spent tens of 1000’s on journey and lodging in a narrative referred to as “Suffolk Sheriff under fire: $133,000 in P-card expenses linked to Bahamas and high-end dining.”
Herald columnist Joe Battenfeld checked out spending by the Hashish Management Fee in “Cannabis commission suffering from serious case of the munchies” and long-time Herald reporter Rick Sobey checked out purchases made by the state police in “Massachusetts State Police spent $217,000 on luxurious resort stays, worldwide flights, and extra“.
Nonetheless, these aren’t the one tales to be discovered on this treasure trove of state spending knowledge, which covers greater than 22,000 particular person bills. Since this dataset was delivered to the newspaper by way of a Freedom of Data request, by rights it belongs to Herald readers, and we now invite anybody who’s to peruse the info themselves.
We additional invite readers to ship us something they’ve seen that we haven’t. Ideas will be shared with the Herald’s workers at https://www.bostonherald.com/news-tip/ or by emailing [email protected].
