About Sunshine Data
Marion County civic intelligence — built by one person, powered by public records.
Sunshine Data is a Marion County civic intelligence platform — built by one person, powered by public records, and designed for residents who want to actually understand their community.
Florida's Sunshine Law, Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes, guarantees every citizen the right to access government records. That law exists for a reason. But access to records and the ability to make sense of them are two very different things. Most public data is buried in government portals, exported in formats nobody can read, or scattered across a dozen agencies with no connection between them.
Sunshine Data connects those dots.
What's live today
- City of Ocala Finances — every dollar the City of Ocala has spent since 2019, searchable, sortable, and exportable.
- Marion County Finances — $1.1B in county payments and 9,600+ purchase orders, searchable by vendor, department, and date.
- Marion County Real Estate Intelligence — 572,752 parcels, $93.4B in total assessed value, 355,090 building permits, and 67,228 active businesses — all in one place, searchable by owner, address, or parcel number.
- The Sunshine Files — a public records intelligence digest published Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Local news, business filings, and permit data sourced directly under Florida Sunshine Law.
- Marion County FSBO — browse properties, permits, and ownership data for every parcel in Marion County, free and without an account. List your home directly, no agents, no commissions.
What we are
We are a public records interpreter. Every number, pattern, and name on this platform comes directly from a public source — the Florida Division of Corporations, the Marion County Property Appraiser, the Marion County Building Department, the Marion County Clerk of Court, and others. We didn't create this information. It already existed. We organized it, connected it, and made it readable.
We present facts as they stand in the public record. We don't editorialize. We don't make accusations. We let the data speak.
What we are not
We are not an investigative outlet. We have no advertisers, no political affiliation, and no financial relationship with any entity we cover. The only interest here is an informed community.
Who built this
My name is Justin Justice. I'm a data engineer, Marion County resident, Army Infantry veteran, and father of three. I moved to Ocala in 2019 and started noticing things about my community that weren't easy to find answers to — so I built the tools to find them.
Sunshine Data is independent. It always will be.