The Center for Priority Based Budgeting has assembled the
published works on Fiscal Health and Priority Based
Budgeting, all in one place. Each published article and white paper is
yours by clicking on the links below. Our objective is to add to this
library by posting articles and stories from the front-lines of communities who
have implemented the core concepts of Fiscal Health and Wellness through
Priority Based Budgeting.
CPBB Publications on Priority Based
Budgeting
June 2014, How Investing in Priorities Led to Budget Innovation in Nevada written by Former County Manager, Douglas County, NV, Steve
Mokrohisky
June 2014, CPBB Priority Based Budgeting Community
"Visualization" Map- The Center for Priority
Based Budgeting has implemented our core concepts of Fiscal Health and Priority
Based Budgeting in nearly 70 communities. Now see where CPBB communities
exist coast-to-coast!
April 2014, Priority BasedBudgeting: Identification of Public Values and Public Priorities throughCitizen Engagement in Government Budgeting Decisions, a dissertation by Dr.Sheryl Mitchell.
Description: The purpose of the PhD dissertation was to understand and
explore the Priority Based Budgeting (PBB) process in order to learn how PBB
can be used by government leaders to effectively engage citizens in identifying
public values and priorities. Dr. Mitchell also sought to discover if the PBB
process, by reframing dialogues and focusing on values and priorities, can
provide guidance for budget expenditures and thereby align resources with
public values and priorities. Also see Dr. Mitchell's PBB Dissertation Executive Summary, The Definitive Case for Priority Based Budgeting!
October 2013, Embracing
the Decade of "Local Government" - How to Face Challenges and Seize
Opportunities written by Jon Johnson and Chris Fabian of the Center for Priority Based Budgeting and
Cheryl Hilvert of ICMA, published by
International City / County Manager's Association's (ICMA) professional journal,
Public Management "PM" Magazine
Description: The recession may officially be over
according to economists, but unlike the normal ebb and flow of the past,
the picture is dramatically different than anything managers have
experienced during other economic cycles.
Local governments are
realizing that they will not simply return to the status quo that
existed before the recession.
Managers are coming to grips with an environment in which:
- Revenues will at best remain flat or continue to decline.
- Costs associated with energy, fuel, health care, and basic supplies will continue to grow.
- Taxpayers can't afford to pay more because of the recession’s impact on their own personal finances.
Taxpayers
are perhaps expecting local government to provide even more support in
meeting their social, physical, environmental, and economic needs,
especially with the declining assistance in these same areas from
federal and/or state sources.
How does local government seize
this incredible opportunity, embracing O’Neill’s decade of local
government, but still continue to offer the important, even vital,
services required by communities in a responsive and timely fashion?
Description:
Priority Based Budgeting has been declared a Leading Practice for
Government Management by ICMA. Three years after it's invention, the
process has been implemented in nearly 70 communities across the Country,
from cities as large as Sacramento CA, and Cincinnati OH to communities
as politically complex and diverse as Boulder CO and Monterey CA, to
organizations as small as Post Falls ID, Chrisitansburg VA and Blue Ash
OH.
The "unique lens" of Priority Based Budgeting is leading
organizations to surprising breakthroughs and insights, focusing on
questions such as: What is the local government uniquely qualified to
provide, for the maximum benefit to citizens for the tax dollars they
pay? What is the community truly mandated to provide? What does it cost
to fulfill those mandates? What are the appropriate programs to consider
establishing or increasing user-fees? What are the appropriate programs
to consider partnerships with other community service providers? What
services might the local government reach consensus about “getting out
of the business” of providing? Where are there apparent overlaps and
redundancies in a community where several entities are providing similar
services? Where is the local government potentially competing against
businesses in its own community?
Description:
This White Paper, published by GFOA, is the first paper documenting
some of the key ingredients of a Priority Based Budget initiative. While
most governments today agree on the need to prioritize services and
resource allocation, the key issue remains: how do you do that?
This is a
paper about the Center for Priority Based Budgeting's methodologies and
process which are pioneering in the field of priority based budgeting,
as well as some of CPBB's most successful stories from the work, namely:
San Jose, Lakeland, Walnut Creek, Blue Ash, Grand Island, Chesapeake,
Boulder and Fairfield. To quote Chesapeake's City manager in 2010,
William Harrell: "It sounds intuitive but what we found was there was no
real methodology to connect all of the things that government does" to
what policymakers want to see for their cities. (Virginia Pilot,
regional newspaper, Chesapeake, Virginia)
May 2010,
Anatomy of a Priority Based Budget,
authored by Jon Johnson, Chris Fabian and GFOA's Shayne Kavanagh,
published by the Government Finance Officer's Association's (GFOA)
professional journal, Government Finance Review (GFR)
Description:
Priority Driven Budgeting is about how a government should invest
resources in order to meet its stated objectives. Prioritization helps
us to better articulate why the programs we offer exist, what value they
offer to citizens, how they benefit the community, what price we pay
for them, and what objectives and citizen demands they are achieving.
Priority Driven Budgeting is about directing resources to those programs
that create the greatest value for the public."
June 2008,
Prioritization: The New Reality of Budgeting,
authored by Chris Fabian, Scott Collins and Jon Johnson, published by
International City / County Manager's Association's (ICMA) professional
journal, Public Management "PM" Magazine
Description:
Unveiling the invention of Priority Based Budgeting, the authors note:
"the biggest challenge we face in government is not the ever-changing
fiscal conditions. Instead, the issue most often is a crisis of
strategy."
Recognizing this, we believe that implementing prioritization
is an effective way to combat crises. All organizations, especially
those that are stewards of public resources, establish values and
objectives to meet the expectations of those for whom they exist to
serve. Resources contributed by the community or other constituencies
are dedicated to achieve those established objectives, regardless of the
current fiscal condition. As we evaluate the inventories of all
programs and services offered, we would find it implausible to believe
that each achieves those objectives to an equal extent.
Prioritization
offers an objective process that allows those responsible for resource
allocation decisions to ensure that those programs of higher value to
citizens, those programs that achieve the organization’s objectives most
visibly and effectively, can be sustained through adequate funding
levels regardless of the fiscal crisis du jour. Whether there are more
resources to distribute or fewer to allocate, prioritization guides that
allocation toward those programs most highly valued by the organization
and, most important, by the citizens who depend on those programs for
their well-being, their comfort, and their expected quality of life.
CPBB Publications on Fiscal Health
Description:
When elected officials start asking if it's time to cut services, cut
staff, or raise taxes, are you confident you have the facts and analyses
to offer a thoughtful recommendation? Be prepared with an approach that
uses a series of basic but critical diagnostic questions that center
around five measures of fiscal health. In October 2009, PM Magazine
published Part 2 in the "It's All in the Questions" series which
highlighted the public manager's role in assessing the organization's
Fiscal Health. With special emphasis on the effectiveness of Internal
Service Funds and the success of scenario planning models such as the
Fiscal Health Diagnostic Tool, this article helps put in place the final
foundation of financial stability needed so that an organization can
look to Priority Based Budgeting with a sound footing.
Description: "It's
All in the Questions - the Manager's Role in Achieving Fiscal Health"
is the latest Cover Story for Pubic Management Magazine, and includes
Part 1 of a 2 part series, with Part 1 focusing on the critical
identification and differentiation between reliable, predicatable,
ongoing revenues and those of a one-time nature; establishing and
demonstrating reserves; and understanding and addressing variances.
The Center for Priority Based
Budgeting's 2014 "New Wave" of Local Government Conference is
the most relevant event of our time for leading local government innovators!
Center for Priority Based Budgeting
The "New Wave" of Local Government
2014 Annual Conference
Denver, Colorado | August 5 - 7, 2014
Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel
![Obama-Hickenlooper. doing ad for Wynkoop jpg_thumb[1]](http://i1.wp.com/elgl.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Obama-Hickenlooper.-doing-ad-for-Wynkoop-jpg_thumb1.jpg)
