Understanding the National GFOA Budget Award Program
The National Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) established the Distinguished Budget Presentation Awards Program in 1984 to promote excellence in budget document preparation by state and local governments. Recipients must meet specific criteria and excel in policy document, financial plan, operations guide, and communication tool aspects. The City of Brockton, MA, was honored for its fiscal year 2022 budget. Various Massachusetts entities have been recognized for their transparency in budgeting, with each having different numbers of awards received. Meeting the award requirements helps legitimize the budget process and showcase best practices in budgeting.
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National GFOA Budget Award Program Mark and Matt Abrahams, The Abrahams Group MGFOA November 2023 1
National GFOA Budget Award Program What's the big deal? Who's getting this award in MA? Who are the people reviewing these documents? What are the award requirements? How does meeting these requirements legitimize the budget process? 2
What is the Big Deal? GFOA established the Distinguished Budget Presentation Awards Program (Budget Awards Program) in 1984 to encourage and assist state and local governments to prepare budget documents of the very highest quality that reflect both the guidelines established by the National Advisory Council on State and Local Budgeting and the GFOA's best practices on budgeting and then to recognize individual governments that succeed in achieving that goal. Approximately 1,800 governments, including states, cities, counties, special districts, school districts, and more have been recognized for transparency in budgeting. To earn recognition, budget documents must meet program criteria and excel as a policy document (P) financial plan (F) operations guide (O) communication tool (C). 3
GFOA DISTINGUISHED BUDGET AWARD GOVERNMENT FINANCE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION Distinguished Budget Presentation Award PRESENTED TO City of Brockton Massachusetts For the Fiscal Year Beginning July 01, 2022 Christoper P. Morrill Executive Director 4
Who are the MA Recipients? # of Awards 7 8 20 32 30 1 26 36 2 16 1 1 6 6 7 # of Awards 1 5 9 10 3 4 7 6 13 3 8 1 1 8 3 Entilty Name Andover Arlington Barnstable Boston Boston Water and Sewer Commission Brockton Brookline Cambridge Cohasset Concord Easthampton Foxbrough Longmeadow Lowell Massachusetts Water Resources Authority Entilty Name Medford New Bedford Newburyport North Andover Oak Bluffs Pittsfield Revere Somerville Springfield Stoneham Sudbury Wellesley Westborough Weston Woburn 5
What are the criteria? To earn recognition, budget documents must meet program criteria and excel as a Policy document (P) 3 Criteria Financial plan (F) 9 Criteria Operations guide (O) 6 Criteria Communication tool (C) - 6 Criteria A total of 24 criteria 14 Mandatory 10 Non Mandatory 6
What are the criteria? #C1. Mandatory: Include a table of contents that makes it simple to locate information. #P1. Mandatory: Provide a coherent statement of organization-wide, strategic goals and strategies that address long-term concerns and issues. #P2. Mandatory: Provide a budget message that articulates priorities and issues for the upcoming year. The message should describe significant changes in priorities from the current year and explain the factors that led to those changes. The message may take one of several forms (e.g., transmittal letter, budget summary section). #C2. Mandatory: An overview of significant budgetary items and trends should be provided. The overview should be presented within the budget as a separate section (e.g., budget-in brief) or integrated within the transmittal letter. #O1. Mandatory: Provide an organization chart for the entire entity. #F1. Describe all funds that are subject to appropriation. #O2: Provide narrative, tables, schedules, or matrices to show the relationship between functional units, major funds, and nonmajor funds in the aggregate. 7
What are the criteria? #F2: Explain the basis of budgeting for all funds, whether cash, modified accrual, or some other statutory basis. #P3. Mandatory: Include a coherent statement of entity-wide long-term financial policies. #P4. Mandatory: Describe the process for preparing, reviewing, and adopting the budget for the coming fiscal year. Also, describe the procedures for amending the budget after adoption. #F3. Mandatory: Present a summary of major revenues and expenditures, as well as other financing sources and uses, to provide an overview of the total resources budgeted by the organization. #F4: Include summaries of revenues and other financing sources, and of expenditures and other financing uses for the prior year actual, the current year budget and/or estimated current year actual, and the proposed budget year. #F5. Mandatory: Include projected changes in fund balance/net position for appropriated funds included in the budget presentation. 8
What are the criteria? #F6. Mandatory: Describe major revenue sources, explain the underlying assumptions for the revenue estimates, and discuss significant revenue trends. #F7. Explain long-range operating financial plans and its effect upon the budget and the budget process. #F8. Mandatory: Include budgeted capital expenditures, whether authorized in the operating budget or in a separate capital budget. #F9. Mandatory: Include financial data on current debt obligations, describe the relationship between current debt levels and legal debt limits, and explain the effects of existing debt levels on current operations. #O3. Mandatory: A schedule or summary table of personnel or position counts for prior, current and budgeted years shall be provided. #O4. Mandatory: Include departmental/program descriptions. #O5: Include clearly stated goals and objectives of the department or program. 9
What are the criteria? #O6: Mandatory: Provide objective measures of progress toward accomplishing the government s mission as well as goals and objectives for specific departments and programs. #C3: Include statistical and supplemental data that describe the organization, its community, and population. It should also furnish other pertinent background information related to the services provided. #C4: A glossary should be included for any terminology (including abbreviations and acronyms) that is not readily understandable to a reasonably informed lay reader. #C5: Charts and graphs should be used, where appropriate, to highlight financial and statistical information. Narrative interpretation should be provided when the messages conveyed by the graphs are not self-evident. #C6: The budget information should be produced and formatted in such a way as to enhance its understanding by the average reader. It should be attractive, consistent, and oriented to the reader's needs. 10
How does meeting these requirements legitimize the budget process? GFOA s Guiding Budgeting Principals Principle I Establish Broad Goals To Guide Government Decision Making A government should have broad goals that provide overall direction for the government and serve as a basis for decision making. Principle II Develop Approaches to Achieve Goals A government should have specific policies, plans, programs, and management strategies to define how it will achieve its long-term goals. 11
How does meeting these requirements legitimize the budget process? GFOA s Guiding Budgeting Principals Principle III Develop a Budget with Approaches to Achieve Goals A financial plan and budget that moves toward achievement of goals, within the constraints of available resources, should be prepared and adopted. Principle IV Evaluate Performance and Make Adjustments Program and financial performance should be continually evaluated, and adjustments made, to encourage progress toward achieving goals. 12
How does meeting these requirements legitimize the budget process? By meeting these criteria, your budget fulfills GFOA s guiding budget principals and GFOA s mission of the budget: To help decision makers make informed choices about the provision of services and capital assets. 13
For more information, please contact Mark D. Abrahams, CPA Matt Abrahams President, The Abrahams Group Principal, The Abrahams Group 19 Ridgewood Street, Ashland, MA 01721 19 Ridgewood Street, Ashland, MA 01721 Cell: (617) 803-8529 Cell: (617) 240-3435 E Mail: Bettergov@aol.com E Mail: Bettergov2@aol.com E Mail: Mark.bettergov@gmail.com www.theabrahamsgroup.com www.theabrahamsgroup.com 14
Applications Applications to the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award Program must be submitted in GFOA s Awards Management System within ninety (90) days of legal adoption of the final operating budget or submission of the proposed operating budget to the governing body, unless an extension has been approved. All applications must include a Detailed Location Criteria Guide and responses to comments from your last submission, if applicable. Submit an application to the Budget Award Program 1. Go to https://lf.gfoa.org/Forms. If you are not already logged in to the AMS, you will need to enter the government s username and password to login. The username will be the government s GFOA member number followed by a dash and another single digit, usually the number 2. If you do not remember the password, click forgot password and then send recovery email and you will get a password reset link 2.Select Start Process in the blue band at the top of the screen. 3. Click on the green Start button to the right of Budget Application to open and complete the application form. If you do not see Budget application on the Start Process menu, you will need to add the Budget program to your profile. To do this, follow the instructions below under "Add the Budget program to your profile. 4.Click Submit Application. 15
