Rethinking Budgeting Forum

The City of Casper Wyoming has done an incremental budget until this year (we are on a fy July to june).  This year we started the process to provide a priority-based budget that aligns our budget to the programs the City provides.  We are currently at the scoring section of the process and we are very excited to see how our programs align with the City Councils priorities.  The timing of this process is fortuitous as our state legislature is discussing a reduction of property tax which could in turn lead the City to possibly reduce services.  This process will help Council evaluate programs which do not align to their goals and see if there can be alternative options for cost savings.  This idea is not just a technology change, it is a culture shift in how the community looks at the budget.

This is great.  How do you anticipate the priority-based budget to translate to your general ledger?

The City of Casper Wyoming has done an incremental budget until this year (we are on a fy July to june).  This year we started the process to provide a priority-based budget that aligns our budget to the programs the City provides.  We are currently at the scoring section of the process and we are very excited to see how our programs align with the City Councils priorities.  The timing of this process is fortuitous as our state legislature is discussing a reduction of property tax which could in turn lead the City to possibly reduce services.  This process will help Council evaluate programs which do not align to their goals and see if there can be alternative options for cost savings.  This idea is not just a technology change, it is a culture shift in how the community looks at the budget.

This is great.  How do you anticipate the priority-based budget to translate to your general ledger?

The City of Casper Wyoming has done an incremental budget until this year (we are on a fy July to june).  This year we started the process to provide a priority-based budget that aligns our budget to the programs the City provides.  We are currently at the scoring section of the process and we are very excited to see how our programs align with the City Councils priorities.  The timing of this process is fortuitous as our state legislature is discussing a reduction of property tax which could in turn lead the City to possibly reduce services.  This process will help Council evaluate programs which do not align to their goals and see if there can be alternative options for cost savings.  This idea is not just a technology change, it is a culture shift in how the community looks at the budget.

Without the connection to the GL, how are you able to report out on actual spending by priority? If you have conversations with your Council about spending by program/priority, it seems like they might also then have follow up questions throughout the year about what actually happened. Just curious how you address those types of inquiries.

Thanks!

Katie 

This is great.  How do you anticipate the priority-based budget to translate to your general ledger?

The City of Casper Wyoming has done an incremental budget until this year (we are on a fy July to june).  This year we started the process to provide a priority-based budget that aligns our budget to the programs the City provides.  We are currently at the scoring section of the process and we are very excited to see how our programs align with the City Councils priorities.  The timing of this process is fortuitous as our state legislature is discussing a reduction of property tax which could in turn lead the City to possibly reduce services.  This process will help Council evaluate programs which do not align to their goals and see if there can be alternative options for cost savings.  This idea is not just a technology change, it is a culture shift in how the community looks at the budget.

The City of Casper Wyoming has done an incremental budget until this year (we are on a fy July to june).  This year we started the process to provide a priority-based budget that aligns our budget to the programs the City provides.  We are currently at the scoring section of the process and we are very excited to see how our programs align with the City Councils priorities.  The timing of this process is fortuitous as our state legislature is discussing a reduction of property tax which could in turn lead the City to possibly reduce services.  This process will help Council evaluate programs which do not align to their goals and see if there can be alternative options for cost savings.  This idea is not just a technology change, it is a culture shift in how the community looks at the budget.

We are attempting to move in this direction as well but have been met with some resistance since the Strategic Goals set by our Board are not widely embraced in all areas of the County.  

Did you get any pushback to this change in your budgeting approach?  If so, how did you work through that pushback?

The City of Casper Wyoming has done an incremental budget until this year (we are on a fy July to june).  This year we started the process to provide a priority-based budget that aligns our budget to the programs the City provides.  We are currently at the scoring section of the process and we are very excited to see how our programs align with the City Councils priorities.  The timing of this process is fortuitous as our state legislature is discussing a reduction of property tax which could in turn lead the City to possibly reduce services.  This process will help Council evaluate programs which do not align to their goals and see if there can be alternative options for cost savings.  This idea is not just a technology change, it is a culture shift in how the community looks at the budget.

Would you or anyone else please share how you designed the priority-based budget and the scoring rubric along with pros for doing it this way?  We are looking at alternate ideas for budget as well.  I'm also interested in the cons if you haven't had success.

As a second question, does anyone just provide a dollar amount for each department and let them spend however they want?  If they want a new mower or new computers, they have to figure out what to cut in order to make that happen.  And they would have to make the money stretch for 12 months.  This would be for operations only and would not include salaries and benefits or major capital items.  I think this approach would also come with VERY strict guidelines that there would be no budget amendments unless there is some type of natural disaster, total vehicle loss, etc.  If you do this, please share how you set it up and make it successful.  If you tried this with no success, please share the cons.

Thank you!

We are attempting to move in this direction as well but have been met with some resistance since the Strategic Goals set by our Board are not widely embraced in all areas of the County.  

Did you get any pushback to this change in your budgeting approach?  If so, how did you work through that pushback?

The City of Casper Wyoming has done an incremental budget until this year (we are on a fy July to june).  This year we started the process to provide a priority-based budget that aligns our budget to the programs the City provides.  We are currently at the scoring section of the process and we are very excited to see how our programs align with the City Councils priorities.  The timing of this process is fortuitous as our state legislature is discussing a reduction of property tax which could in turn lead the City to possibly reduce services.  This process will help Council evaluate programs which do not align to their goals and see if there can be alternative options for cost savings.  This idea is not just a technology change, it is a culture shift in how the community looks at the budget.