How Marathon County, WI Gets Their Priorities Straight!

"We need to FIRST get our priorities straight and THEN align our money with our stated priorities." - Brad Karger, Marathon County Administrator

Brad Karger

This article originally written by Brad Karger and published in the Summer 2016 Marathon County Newsletter.

160 million dollars ($160,000,000) is A LOT of money. That’s the size of Marathon County’s annual budget. So don’t let anybody tell you that the County is broke. We are FAR from broke.

The real challenge we face is that every year, our operational costs go up 2 million dollars ($2,000,000) while the State imposed levy caps limit us to a half million dollars ($500,000) in new tax levy. This means that pretty much every year we start the budget process with a 1.5 million dollar ($1,500,000) deficit just to cover the same slate of items we did the year prior.

I’ve been in leadership for a long time, and we’ve used a number of strategies to address this deficit:

·Across-the-board cuts

·Pay freezes and asking employees to shoulder more of the cost of their health benefits

·Reducing the size of our workforce

·Energy-conservation measures

·Spending down reserves

All these strategies have worked, but they’ve taken us about as far as they can.

In preparing the 2017 budget, we will aspire higher. We want our lower priority programs to be the funding source for our most impactful, highest priority initiatives.

Complaining about State mandates and declaring ourselves victims of a State-imposed system is pretty standard stuff for local officials, but it isn't going to accomplish much and, more than anything, it will contribute to a loss of public confidence in us as leaders.

So, for 2017, we need to FIRST get our priorities straight and THEN align our money with our stated priorities.

Think about how a family allocates its financial resources...

·If appeasing the desires of the children today is the top priority, a family might focus on having TVs in several rooms and splurging on satellite television so each child can watch what he or she wants.

·If the family’s focus is more long term, education might be the priority and the family might choose not to spend their money on multiple TVs or satellite programming, and instead save and invest their money so that all the children in the house will have a college fund one day.

In a perfect world, every family could have both satellite TV in every room AND a college fund for each child. But when the world is not perfect, someone needs to be the parent in the room and make the tough (sometimes unpopular) decision, knowing the impact of that single choice will be long standing.

That’s why this year we’re committing ourselves to getting our priorities straight in Marathon County, and we have a new methodology and some consulting support to help us make the transition.

That may sound easy, but when your “family” is the size of Marathon County, it’s not. So stay tuned, and I’ll be sure to let you know what we’ve learned and adjusted in the fall. 

The CPBB congratulates Marathon County on their excellent work in implementing priority based budgeting. Marathon County joins Washington County (first County in Wisconsin to implement PBB) in their innovative fiscal and budgeting efforts through priority based budgeting!

The Center for Priority Based Budgeting

“A Prioritized World” 

2016 Annual (Un)Conference

Denver, Colorado | August 2 - 4, 2016

Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel 

  Register Now and Book Your Hotel!

Strathcona County Aces the Test for Implementing Priority Based Budgeting

"We are able to evaluate the impact of community goals on programs and services and enhance strategic decision making to make more effective use of county resources." - Councillor Fiona Beland-Quest

Strathcona County, Alberta, Canada, is leading the way in priority based business planning and budgeting. As the first municipality in Canada to implement online PBB, this will result in Strathcona County being more proactive, strategic and effective in program and service delivery.

The process will provide valuable information that supports decision-making by directors and managers, enabling them to allocate or reallocate resources, based on each program or resource request’s alignment to strategic and corporate priorities. It can also be used by the organization to set targets and determine how resources are aligned, based on priorities.

The following article was published on May 12, 2016 by the Sherwood Park News and written by Fiona Beland-Quest (councillor for Ward 8).

Strathcona County aces the test for implementing priority-based budgeting

As a councillor, during the last Priorities Committee meeting, it was so rewarding to listen to Jon Johnson and Chris Fabian from the Center for Priority-Based Budgeting recognized that Strathcona County is leading the way — an actual pioneer in priority-based business planning and budgeting.

Strathcona County is working with the Center for Priority-Based Budgeting, a Colorado-based organization, which is focused on providing technical and advisory services to help governments achieve fiscal health and wellness.

I’m proud to say this council and our administration are committed to this new approach, which is allowing our county to identify key community and council goals and priorities clearly and comprehensively. We are able to evaluate the impact of community goals on programs and services and enhance strategic decision making to make more effective use of county resources. We are proving successful in doing this, because we have a better understanding of how programs align to our community goals. This approach is also helping our community understand why programs are offered, what they cost, and consequently, the value they provide to citizens and businesses.
The philosophy behind priority-based budgeting is that resources should be allocated based on how effectively a program or service achieves the goals or objectives that are of the greatest value to the community.

As a result of all this hard work, Strathcona County now has a Resource Alignment Diagnostic (RAD) Tool that identifies the nature and cost of 315 unique programs, and evaluates the relevance of each, based on alignment with community priorities.

The RAD Tool is a data source that contains information about Strathcona County programs. It includes program descriptions and costing; program relevance to meeting community and/or governance results and attributes; and multiple filters for data analysis. This innovative tool creates a new lens through which our county can analyze how dollars are spent and how each program aligns across all priorities, and to individual priorities. These tools create greater flexibility, and position Strathcona County to react appropriately, and to make the right decisions, working in a challenging and dynamic environment.

Programs for which residents, businesses and visitors can look only to the county to obtain the service will receive a higher score for the reliance attribute compared to programs that may be similarly obtained from another intergovernmental agency or a private business.

Each of our 315 programs are scored and allotted to one of four different quartiles. Inventorying all of our services into a list of programs is the most difficult part of the process; however, it’s the most illuminating. By costing out and rethinking the budget in terms of what specific services our county provides, we gain valuable information about what we actually do and how much each unit costs to produce.

I have never been so excited about hearing about our budgeting and strategic planning processes. Only 120 out of about 90,000 municipalities are using the priority-based budgeting process in North America. Strathcona County is one of the first to complete all five steps in Canada.

That’s quite an achievement. Administration deserves a high-five for working so hard on behalf of our citizens and businesses! Critical to the success of priority-based business planning and budgeting is the strong support that this Council has shown for the Strategic Plan and the prioritized goals identified within the plan. The ability to be successful in prioritized areas is compromised when everything is identified as a priority.

I know the work is not done. We’ll continue to drill down into our programs and services to find additional efficiencies that will keep taxes low and allow us to continue delivering the high level of services our citizens deserve. I encourage you to take the time to view the full presentation online, so you too can feel confident in the way your tax dollars are being spent.

Related Articles:

First Past the Priority Based Budgeting Post in Strathcona County

The Center for Priority Based Budgeting

“A Prioritized World” 

2016 Annual (Un)Conference

Denver, Colorado | August 2 - 4, 2016

Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel 

  Register Now and Book Your Hotel!

First Past the Priority Based Budgeting Post in Strathcona County

“To think about how much of a pioneer you truly are is substantial, and people will look to you for your example and they will learn from you.”

Strathcona County, Alberta, Canada, is leading the way in priority based business planning and budgeting. As the first municipality in Canada to implement online PBB, this will result in Strathcona County being more proactive, strategic and effective in program and service delivery. The process will provide valuable information that supports decision-making by directors and managers, enabling them to allocate or reallocate resources, based on each program or resource request’s alignment to strategic and corporate priorities. It can also be used by the organization to set targets and determine how resources are aligned, based on priorities.

The following article was published on April 18, 2016 by the Sherwood Park News and written by Krysta Martell.

First past the priority-based budget post

Strathcona County is becoming a leader in budgeting, as the first municipality in Canada to implement priority–based budgeting.

Three years ago, county council discussed strategic planning and priorities with representatives from the Denver–based company, the Centre for Priority–Based Budgeting.

A strategic planning session followed consultations, at which point council got the opportunity to see results from an American community that had gone through the process.

To help Strathcona County pursue the initiative, an online tool will be used to allow the county to look at their budget and consider what the best dollar value will be for residents.

“This is a big moment... This is the mission of our entire endeavor,” said Chris Fabian, co-founder of the Centre for Priority–Based Budgeting.

He said there have been more than 100 organizations that have gone through the process of priority–based budgeting; six have attempted it in Canada, two have made it to the point of prioritizing programs, and one — Strathcona County — is the first with online tools and the potential of delivering on the initiative.

“There are over 90,000 entities of local government throughout the United States and Canada,” Fabian said. “To think about how much of a pioneer you truly are is substantial, and people will look to you for your example and they will learn from you.”

Jon Johnson, co-founder of the Centre for Priority–Based Budgeting, said they always want to ask the question: Why consider priority-based budgeting?

“This is a challenging time, whether it is the economy, whether it is the environment, whether it is our political climate,” he said. “Why would you change? Why would you look at the budget differently?... We found this helps you communicate differently what you spend your money on — how you can make it clearer to everybody and what is it that we do with those tax dollars.”
Johnson said they want to be able to help guide the conversation in determining where to put the money that would have the most benefit for the community.

“You talk about looking at your ongoing operating budget. You got $320 million that we had to communicate. Well, what is it that we do with those dollars? What is it that we spend them on?” he asked.

The consultants provided an overview of the online budgeting program for different county programs, as they apply to the budget.

“There are $13 million of programs that resources are being allocated to for which you are not influencing in any of the results you want to do,” Johnson said, adding: “This tool is about reallocation, reuse, retraining. It is helping you see, how we take the resources we have and move them in a different direction.”

The City of Boulder, Colorado discovered they were not spending enough money on environmental sustainability, looked at their resources and made a plan for almost $3 million of new programs in that area by shifting and repurposing resources.

“Just realize, this is the beginning of the work you are going to be doing with staff,” Johnson said.

“How do we direct things? And how do they help you get to the policy questions and the policy discussions that you want to have about your budget? Your resource allocation plan maximizes the strategic goals your community wants to achieve — that you know are important for your community.”

Coun. Brian Botterill noted the county’s open data portal may be helpful in the budget process.

“I think best practices — if there are any between communities using PBB (priority-based budgeting) and how they share their successes — would be hugely beneficial because the volume of data is very, very large,” he said. “Choosing what to share and how to share it would be imperative and I think, down the road, one thing I would like to see is a way to integrate this with our open data portal.”

“I’ve always been a very strong proponent of zero-based budgeting,” said Coun. Vic Bidzinski. “I was a little skeptical three years ago when we made that first presentation... How is it going to affect us? And what is the difference between this and this?... I think you can go even deeper into departments... and really get some unbelievable information.”

Mayor Roxanne Carr said she is looking forward to using the tools.

“I have been waiting for this update... for three years because it was this council that had the foresight to bring them in and to encourage our administration to go forward into the future with the priority-based planning,” she said. “I was excited to hear them and I am looking forward to using these tools.”

The Center for Priority Based Budgeting

“A Prioritized World” 

2016 Annual (Un)Conference

Denver, Colorado | August 2 - 4, 2016

Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel 

  Register Now and Book Your Hotel!