Marketing Your Budget: Creative Ways to Engage Citizens in the Bottom Line.

• Author: Moravec, Randy

Reviewed by Randy Moravec, finance director of Addison, Texas, and chairman of GFOA's Committee on Governmental Budgeting and Management.

One of the great frustrations of government finance professionals who labor much of the year in developing their entity's annual budget is that, aside from the production of a three-inch thick tome, little is accomplished. No program goals are established, thousands (or millions!) of tax dollars are distributed with no accountability for successful provision of services, and no long-term perspective is established which may guide a community. No wonder the document often ends up on a shelf, never to be opened.

For those of us who yearn for a better way, hope comes in the form of Marketing Your Budget. The goals of the book are:

* demonstrate that the budget process offers local government the opportunity to win public support for community choices, and for local government itself,

* identify creative approaches for engaging citizens in the budget process, and

* examine ways of making the budget a citizen-friendly document that helps communicate the mission, goals, and performance of local government.

The book is essentially a compilation of techniques several cities have used to make the budgeting process a successful venture. In fact more than half the book comprises an appendix of samples of these techniques as well as a helpful 48-point marketing checklist. The author also draws heavily on his experiences as city manager of Brea, California.

The book begins by emphasizing the importance of making the budget process inclusive by engaging the community in the process, which can be accomplished by "marketing" the budget: "Marketing involves listening to people and evaluating their needs and desires, and then responding with opportunities." The author also makes an important distinction between marketing the budget, which works to gain information from the community, and selling the budget, which would attempt to obtain buy-in after the process has been completed. Several approaches used by cities for engaging the community include publication of special taxpayer guides which provide basic instruction of the sources and uses of a government's resources, community forums which encourage public discourse on the issues impacting budget development, and surveys for gauging public opinion on budget issues. A particularly interesting survey included in the appendix is...