NEWS
Cupertino Wins the 2022 Innovation award Cupertino’s innovation targeted toward improving fiscal transparency ARNAV VISHWAKARMA writer
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4 | DESIGNED BY SOHA ROY
he City of Cupertino recently won the 2022 Innovation Award for its financial transparency and many tools available to residents, factors that can significantly affect how one engages with their city and their quality of life in it.
The Innovation Award was presented to Cupertino by the California Society of Municipal Finance Officers, and “recognizes innovation in public sector finance in a variety of areas, including accounting, treasury, and procurement”.
Essentially, the award is a yearly occurrence that recognizes and ultimately encourages public sectors such as cities, districts or counties to be innovative in managing and being transparent with their finances. The City of Cupertino was one of three winners in 2022, receiving the award for two tools it created for citizens to gain a deeper understanding of how their taxes are used. The first of the two tools is a tax calculator for residents, allowing citizens to see the breakdowns of approximately how much they pay in tax and ultimately how this revenue is spent. The tool starts off by prompting users to estimate their spending on items with sales tax, followed by a chart displaying how that sales tax is split up between different bodies of government. From the 9% of tax that citizens pay on goods, the 11% that Cupertino receives is then broken down into specific categories that the revenue is spent on. Categorizing it into revenue by service and expense shows citizens exactly where
