ALEC Report on States: States Need to Adopt a "Priority Based Budget"

ALEC MacIver Institute: "The study suggests states adopt a “priority-based budget.” A key to this perspective on a state’s budget is to carefully examine the role of government. The study reports governments must properly understand their role in order to provide the services people need, while also protecting individual rights. The study encourages legislatures to focus on the core functions government and to avoid wasting time and money on nonessential and trivial undertakings. Along with this suggestion, the report includes ten golden rules of taxation; sometimes called the ten commandments of supply-side economics."

Delray commissioners hire firm to close projected budget gap

Delray commissioners hire firm to close projected budget gap
By Palm Beach Business.com

DELRAY BEACH — Staring down the barrel of a project revenue shortfall approaching $3 million, Delray Beach City Commissioners agreed to some outside help in putting together the budget for the fiscal year that begins October 1.

Commissioners agreed to hire the Denver-based Center for Priority Based Budgeting to help put together a budget geared towards “the community’s highest priority programs,” while shifting money away from other less important programs.

Monterey Passes Budget - PBB helps the City determine what city services are mandated, which have costs that can be covered by user fees, and whether the services could be supplied by the marketplace

Monterey OKs $94M priority-based budget - MontereyHerald.com :
Monterey's first priority-based budgeting process ended last week with the adoption of a $94 million budget for fiscal 2011-12. Assistant City Manager Fred Cohn said priority-based budgeting has become a new trend among cities, turning away from the traditional line-item budget to one that takes in several factors, including what the general public wants its city to do.

The $94,853,832 budget, which includes a general fund operating budget of $56,737,070, came after four public meetings — over and above City Council meetings — that invited residents to list their own priorities for spending the city's income, Cohn said.

'This was an opportunity to link various services we perform with the council's value drivers which it deemed was important for the community, and get a sense of what the community values were,' Cohn said.

These factors, were considered along with determining what city services are mandated, which have costs that can be covered by user fees, and whether the services could be supplied by the marketplace."

New Hampshire Municipal Manager's Association Welcomes the Center for Discussion of Fiscal Health and Wellness

http://www.nhlgc.org/affiliate/nhmma/pdfdocuments/NHMMA_ConferenceMailer_2011.pdf

Local government managers are always looking for better ways to do things in their communities. Priority based budgeting is a model that has been successfully implemented in several municipalities across the country. John Johnson and Chris Fabian of the Center for Priority Based Budgeting will present a half day workshop on achieving fiscal health and wellness, and reviewing the priority based budgeting model. Participants will be given information along with hands on tools and techniques to take back to their communities. The review will include the five principles of fiscal health and how preventative diagnosis can uncover potentially unhealthy practices that could easily be corrected.

Boulder revives community survey - Priority Based Budgeting Brings Relevance to Traditional Survey Efforts

Boulder revives community survey - Boulder Daily Camera
Traditional citizen survey efforts may regain relevance when used in the context of Priority Based Budgeting.

"What would you change about Boulder? That's essentially what thousands of Boulder residents will be asked to answer later this year as part of a comprehensive community survey.

Sarah Huntley, a city spokeswoman, said the city manager decided to resurrect the survey to help inform the new "priority-based budgeting" model, in which the city prioritizes funding based on the community's goals and desires."

Monterey's Priority Based Budgeting - "the motivation to make decisions, albeit difficult ones, that are in the best interests of the residents, businesses, and visitors that we serve"

http://www.monterey.org/prioritybasedbudget/docs/110517PropBudgetFinal.pdf

The City Council was informed last spring that due to the prolonged recession coupled with increased costs the City’s General Fund still faced a structural imbalance of about $5 million, even after the substantial budget reduction measures already taken in the previous year. However, unlike many cities and the State of California, who were forced by poor planning to rush a budget reduction plan into place, this City Council directed staff to take the time to gather input from the community in order to help prioritize the difficult budget choices ahead.


This was done last fall using a Priority-based Budgeting process.

It is a consensus-based strategy developed by all department heads built on the knowledge gleaned from the Priority-Based Budgeting process and the motivation to make decisions, albeit difficult ones, that are in the best interests of the residents, businesses, and visitors that we serve.

Building Economically Resilient Communities Conference

neha2011aec.org - Building Resilient Communities

The National Environmental Health Association has created a track devoted to Building Economically Resilent Communities, at this year's annual conference in Columbus, Ohio (June 18-20).

The concept is completely unique, portraying Economic Sustainability as the confluence of a government's fiscal health (what Jon and I are working on here at the Center), a community's overall economic well-being (what you'll hear Fort Collins CFO, Mike Freeman discuss), and the environmental health of a region (NEHA's expertise).

City / county managers will be exposed to evidence that sustainability initiatives (fiscal, economic, and environmental) are literally at the root of Resiliency, as witnessed and demonstrated in these sessions. As communities today struggle to balance their budgets while preserving long-term economic growth, these sessions will demonstrate that all are achievable. Building Resilient Communities begins with a new definition of Sustainability.

For more on the sessions, click below

Christiansburg, VA Proposes FY 11-12 Budget on the Foundation of Priority Based Budgeting

Go Directly to the Town's Website at:
http://www.christiansburg.org/index.aspx?nid=455

The Center for Priority Based Budgeting also provided town staff with access to their proprietary spreadsheets and filtering systems as they work to allocate resources based on priorities. These systems will allow for closer examination of programs and services and the impact they have on town spending. They are designed to promote questioning by staff of what else can be done, who the town can possibly partner with to continue to provide the same level of service expected by the public, etc. The intent of the process is to provide a new way of looking at information and generating the conversations that need to be had in order to make tough funding decisions.

The town hopes to continue to utilize the priority based budgeting approach in the future, whether facing tough economic times or not. In addition to providing a way to completely review existing programs and services in upcoming years, it will also allow suggestions for new programs or services to be evaluated using established criteria as a means of determining whether implementing the prospective program should be a high priority for the town and our citizens.

MONTEREY PRESS RELEASE: Initial Budget Reduction Plan Presented to Public - Approach Upholds Principles of Priority Based Budgeting

MONTEREY PRESS RELEASE: Initial Budget Reduction Plan Presented to Public - Approach Upholds Principles of Priority Based Budgeting


Download Staff Presentation from City of Monterey Website at: http://www.monterey.org/prioritybasedbudget/docs/PrelimBudgetReductionStrategyFY12.pdf

“We have cut millions of dollars out of the City budget over the last two years, and there really isn’t anything left to cut that won’t be painful for our residents and our employees,” said City Manager Fred Meurer. “That is why we have worked diligently this year to get the all of our stakeholders involved in the priority-based budgeting process.”

Priority-based budgeting will move the City away from line-item budgeting and toward program budgeting. Program budgeting eventually will help the City determine the true cost of the programs it delivers; see if the fees charged, or perhaps should charge, cover the costs of a program; and build a budget for the future based on what the City can afford.

City of Grand Island Launches Into Another Year of Priority Based Budgeting with Deeper Review of Results

Grand Island's priorities remain the same > The Independent > News > Local
By Tracy Overstreet, Wednesday, April 20, 2011 10:12 AM CDT

A safe community remained the overall No. 1 city priority in a resurvey of the Grand Island City Council, but four new ideas were added to the 21 priorities the council first set two years ago. Those new priorities were immigration control, regional travel/airport development, rightsizing government/outsourcing, and having representation for the city in higher government. The new ideas were write-ins to the survey the council took over the weekend as part of the "$500 exercise" for the city's program prioritization process.

Program prioritization is a budgeting mechanism that begins with asking how much money the city has available, as opposed to how much money it needs, said consultant Jon Johnson.

He and Chris Fabian of the Center for Priority Based Budgeting in Denver began working with the council in 2009 to determine what the city's core functions were and how best to allocate the city's limited resources to those functions.

Christiansburg officials pleased with budget survey response

Christiansburg officials pleased with budget survey response Community Current - roanoke.com: "Christiansburg officials pleased with budget survey response
The Town of Christiansburg received a successful return rate on its budget survey, and other localities took note, spokeswoman Becky Wilburn said Tuesday.

In a presentation to council, Wilburn said she received 1,152 survey responses, which represents 6.6 percent of the town’s 2010 adult population.
Christiansburg paid The Center for Priority Based Budgeting $22,000 to help create a survey intended to aid council in putting together the budget.

Last month, residents received a survey that acted as a simulated exercise, in which they were “given” $100. The residents were asked how they would spread the money among various town needs, deciding which are most important.

The number of responses Christianbsburg received was rated second among surveys created by the company, Wilburn said. The locality with the most received responses from 1,300 people but had a population five times that of Christiansburg, she said.

Because of the town’s success with its survey, Wilburn said she’s been contacted by other localities interested in how they got such feedback. She said she will host a national webinar on the issue. Town Council is slated to hold a budget work session Tuesday."

Boulder Promotes Physical and Fiscal Fitness - Resource Allocation Clearly Promotes Community Value of a Healthy City

Boulder Promotes Physical and Fiscal Fitness
“People here take health and fitness very seriously,” says Steve Mertz. And so does City government. 

Another way in which Boulder encourages a healthy lifestyle is through its budgeting process, Priority Based Budgeting, explains Jennifer Bray.  One of the results against which all 500-plus programs in the City are measured is “A Healthy City and Community.” In other words, the City makes a specific effort to lend support to programs that promote health and fitness within the community.

Fiscal Distress: Tools to Diagnose the Cause and Apply the... | icma.org

Fiscal Distress: Tools to Diagnose the Cause and Apply the... icma.org
For those of you who are participating in the March 10th webconference, Getting Ready for the Budgeting Process: How to Use Priority-Based Budgeting, you will benefit from this topic in a different way. The March 10th event focuses on fiscal wellness (prioritization budgeting). This webconference focuses on fiscal health. Two sides of the same coin, each topic has its own unique tools and techniques.

Get real-life examples of how local governments are benefiting from using this diagnostic approach to fiscal health. Chris and Jon will demonstrate the “Fiscal Health Diagnostic Tool,” point by point.

GFOA Publishes White Paper on Priority Based Budgeting Methodologies

GFOA's White Paper, which Jon and I had the priviledge to co-author with Shayne Kavanagh, 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 does an organization actually DO this? What is the process? This is a paper about our methodologies and process which are pioneering in the field of priority based budgeting, as well as some of our 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, 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
http://www.gfoa.org/downloads/GFOA_AnatomyPriorityDrivenBudgetProcess.pdf

Christiansburg Gains Community Support for Priority Based Budgeting Approach

Christiansburg Tries New Approach on Town Budget


Christiansburg Tries New Approach on Town Budget
Posted: Mar 08, 2011 4:23 PM MST

Christiansburg, VA - As governments look for new and better ways to stretch your tax dollars, many municipalities around the country are turning to a relatively new approach. It's making your money go farther, while bringing residents into the decision-making process.

The town of Christiansburg is trying what's called Priority Based Budgeting. The idea is to establish priorities within town departments that will help the decision makers avoid often counterproductive across the board cuts.