Speaking the Same Language: Numbers are abstract concepts, which can make it challenging for local governments to communicate with residents about how the city spends its tax dollars. These two cities improved their fiscal fluency by using innovative tools and strategies to help their communities understand and engage with the budgeting process. (Shakopee, MN; Indian Wells, CA) (Fiscal Fluency)

• Date: 01 June 2024

The City of Shakopee's Budget Communication Emphasizes Utility

When the City of Shakopee, Minnesota, communicates about the city budget, it's all in service of providing information residents find useful.

This philosophy led the city--an honorable mention winner in GFOA's Fiscal Fluency Challenge--to develop two innovative methods for communicating information about the city's budget. It was a city manager's idea to condense as much budget information as possible onto a single presentation board, Finance Director Nathan Reinhardt said.

He recognized that top-line budget summaries weren't providing the full picture of the budget's impact on individual households. Creating and promoting a budget board filled with information broken down to the household level allowed the city to "right the record" on how Shakopee spends its tax dollars.

"We just wanted to be able to put the information in a format people could understand and relate to," Reinhardt said.

The board combines metrics from the budget that most affect residents, from comparing the average tax bill to other household expenses to tax rate trends over time. City staff and elected officials bring the board with them to budget meetings and refer to it when answering taxpayers' questions. When it's not on the road, the board lives at City Hall, in view of everyone who comes to do business there.

"People appreciate having information they can understand, and some of our comparable information puts things in perspective," Reinhardt said.

City staff are...