"We will be working with ResourceX, the preeminent priority based budgeting organization, through the next year to fine-tune our programmatic costings and to align them with priorities as we move towards programmatic priority based budgeting."
On March 25, 2019, the City of Lansing, MI released their Executive Budget Recommendation for fiscal year 2020. In the lead up to developing this budget, the City (led by the Neighborhood and Citizen Engagement Department) held eight participatory budget sessions in the fall and winter of 2018 - 2019 to gather citizen budget input in an effort to increase fiscal transparency.
In February of 2019, the City partnered with ResourceX to initiate priority based budgeting. In anticipation of a very short turn-around time, the City focused on developing a program inventory (an inventory of every program the city delivers) and program costing (developing the true cost of delivering each program) to incorporate into the Executive Budget Recommendation (pages 9 - 20). With the City's focus, and support from ResourceX, Lansing set a record for development of a program inventory and cost and accurately developed this data in less than two weeks!
In his Executive Summary, Mayor Andy Schor writes, "Now having had a full year as Mayor, this budget represents my goals and vision for the City. As I sought the office of Mayor, I indicated a desire to institute priority based budgeting. This system allows for better communication of how taxpayer dollars and other resources are spent, and aligns them to priorities. I am pleased to present the first step towards that goal. Pages 9-20 of this budget document, for the first time, presents graphic presentations of the programs and amounts for those programs proposed for this coming fiscal year.
As I noted, this is a first step. While this and previous budgets are statements of priorities, we will be working with ResourceX, the preeminent priority based budgeting organization, through the next year to fine-tune our programmatic costings and to align them with priorities as we move towards programmatic priority based budgeting. Also in line with my goal of increasing budgetary transparency and input, the Neighborhood and Citizen Engagement Department, along with the Finance Department and several of our other departments, held eight participatory budget sessions this fall and winter in conjunction with our budget development."
The State of Michigan is emerging as a true leader in priority based budgeting. The City of Lansing now joins the City of Kalamazoo and the City of Battle Creek as PBB cities.
Congratulations to Team Lansing for your incredible efforts and focus in quickly and accurately developing a program inventory and costs! We look forward to partnering with you in the full development of your priority based budget, and applying PBB data to achieve meaningful results for citizens and the community.
To find out more about priority based budgeting, contact us and/or register for the annual PBB Summit in Denver this August! Discover more and register for the PBB Summit here!
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