The city is now in its second year of Priority-Based Budgeting (PBB). PBB is the iterative process of prioritizing city programs in terms of their influence on achieving defined “results” which are the high level, overarching objectives that represent the priorities of City Council and the community. These results were developed as a part of the 2011 budget process, and incorporated City Council and community feedback and input.
The focus this year has been on achieving greater consistency and internal improvement to the PBB process, specifically in the areas of program definition, score assessment, and communications with departments, as well as on better aligning the PBB timeline with the Budget Process timeline.
Financial Overview and Update on 2012 Budget Process
A. Financial Overview:
The overall financial picture for the city of Boulder remains steady, as economic recovery continues at a moderate pace. While the city of Boulder has maintained appropriate financial and budgetary controls to manage both the past downturn and important new initiatives moving forward, uncertainties in the global and local economies warrant close monitoring.
The 2010 unaudited financial results for the city of Boulder are in line with adjusted projections, with revenues and expenditures coming in within revised expectations and all reserve goals being met. Sales and use tax through February 2011 show an overall growth of 9.24% over the same time period in 2010. This is due, in part, to one-time collection and timing anomalies. As such, it is too early in the year to be able to interpret trends from this data. A more detailed and complete analysis will be available once we have received the first quarter results in early May.
Both national and local economic indicators are showing more optimistic signs than in the last two years. However, a number of global and local factors may impact the pace of recovery and could potentially slow revenue growth significantly. Unrest in the Middle East has contributed to rising oil prices and, though national consumer spending has increased for nine months in a row, the increase is primarily due to increased spending on gas. Additionally, the natural disaster in Japan raises concern over price increases due to supply disruption in both the automotive and electronic industries.
National unemployment reached a two-year low of 8.8% in March. Though Colorado rates have not dropped, Boulder’s unemployment rate fell to 7.5% in February and has been consistently lower than the national average. Job growth will be key to continued economic recovery.
B. 2012 Budget Process and Priority-Based Budgeting Update:
The city is now in its second year of Priority-Based Budgeting (PBB). PBB is the iterative process of prioritizing city programs in terms of their influence on achieving defined “results” which are the high level, overarching objectives that represent the priorities of City Council and the community. These results were developed as a part of the 2011 budget process, and incorporated City Council and community feedback and input.
The focus this year has been on achieving greater consistency and internal improvement to the PBB process, specifically in the areas of program definition, score assessment, and communications with departments, as well as on better aligning the PBB timeline with the Budget Process timeline.
Accomplishments/Process improvements so far this year are noted below:
• Review, update and norm program inventories
• Refine results and definitions for greater clarity
• Provide liaisons from the budget office to improve communications between departments and central budget and to assist departments in scoring of programs (measuring influence of programs on achieving results)
• Complete peer review and finalize scoring of programs
• Update and review costing of all programs
Attachment C includes the 2012 PBB results and definitions.
The next step is to prioritize all programs based on the finalized scoring and to have that information available to departments and City Manager to use as a basis for decision-making in building the City Manager’s 2012 recommended budget. This information will be distributed to departments in early May, along with revenue projections and other key economic and cost information needed to build the 2012 budget. Departments will have until early June to submit recommended department budget proposals to the City Manager. The City Manager and the Budget Team will compile and review all of this information in order for the City Manager to formulate her Recommended Budget.
In the 3rd quarter, the City Manager will present the 2012 Recommended Budget to City Council for consideration.
No comments:
Post a Comment