Budget Basics: Two-Year Budget Process

[Music] have you ever wondered how the city decides what to include in a budget the city uses a process called budgeting for outcomes or bfo for short compared to a traditional budgeting process based on past department spending bfo focuses on the programs and services that are most important to the community these programs and services are categorized into what we call outcomes the results we are seeking they are used in bfo and the city strategic plan to help categorize and communicate about all of the city's various programs and services the seven outcomes are neighborhood livability and social health culture and recreation economic health environmental health safe community transportation and mobility and high performing government the city of fort collins has a two-year or biennial budget it all begins with the april elections in odd-numbered years to elect city council members and the mayor council's priorities along with feedback from our community and city staff are used to create the city strategic plan public outreach for the plan generally occurs in september and october and then city council reviews and adopts the strategic plan early in the following year that starts our budgeting process bfo which is designed to pay for the programs and services that best support the strategic plan after forecasting expected revenues budget requests for specific programs and services are written each of these ideas will compete for the available funding during the months of may and june in even number years individual outcome teams evaluate the budget request these bfo teams spend 60 to 80 hours putting the budget requests into a priority ranked order those rankings are based on considerations like how does this request support the city's strategic plan public outrage also takes that summer to gather community feedback on which programs and services should be funded this information is shared with the bfo teams to help them with their final rankings the team recommendations are next evaluated by the city manager and executive team to make final decisions for the city manager's recommended budget that document is presented to the city council and the community before labor day in september and october there are a number of community outreach events and public hearings so community members can weigh on which programs and services were and were not recommended for funding city council also has multiple work sessions to determine the final list of programs and services that will be provided to the community over the next two years the budget must be balanced is required by law to be adopted by november 30th and goes into effect january 1st you

Channel: City of Fort Collins

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Id: 3ZHajjYi1cY

Length: 3min 10sec (190 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 14 2021