Helping citizens understand budget decisions: the City of Fort Worth's budget guide and simulator diskette.

• Author: McKinney, Michael
• Position: Citizens of Fort Worth, TX, make budget decisions via Budgetmaker

Using the Budgetmaker diskette, citizens can register their choices on major budget decisions, and the software presents them with the budget they have created plus the tax rate needed to fund it.

A common frustration for government budget officials is the seemingly kneejerk opposition many citizens have to proposed budget cuts or tax increases. This opposition often exists despite sound management policies and economic facts supporting such budget decisions and is due, in part, to the lack of information readily available to citizens regarding budget decisions. Typically, news reporters and editors lack the time and background information required to understand complex budget issues. As a result, press coverage focuses simply on budget cuts or tax increases contained in a proposed budget. Rarely will a newspaper, radio station, or television channel commit the resources necessary to provide citizens with a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing a budget and the dilemmas inherent in budget decisions.

The budget documents produced by city administrators as proposals to elected officials usually do not help alleviate this lack of understanding. These documents, while useful for elected officials and the staff of the cities, are full of technical accounting language and provide little historical context for decisions or background information regarding policy decisions. The documents assume that the reader understands the difference between funds, the meaning of account categories, and the context of decisions regarding service improvements and reductions. To address the need to educate citizens regarding the city manager's proposed budget, the City of Fort Worth, Texas (population 448,000), developed an easy-to-understand guide to its proposed 1995-96 budget and a budget simulator on a computer diskette.

In the early 1990s, due to a declining property tax base, the city was faced with having to increase its property tax rate to simply maintain the same level of revenues from year to year. Due to inflationary growth in areas such as employee health insurance, even an increase in the tax rate could not prevent the city from dramatically reducing the size of its work force in order to balance its budget. Throughout this period, the city's management had difficulty explaining to citizens how the city's tax rate could increase while services were being reduced. Some citizens and council members were nonplussed by the city management's assertion that, while the tax rate was increasing, the average total tax bill remained the same. Likewise, as the tax rate was increasing total revenues were decreasing, and public services had to be reduced.

The budget guide developed by the city's budget office was intended to increase citizens' understanding of the rationale behind the city manager's proposed budget. By placing service reductions and tax rate increases in the context of the declining property tax roll and the increases in operating costs, citizens were provided with the background information necessary to make informed decisions regarding the recommended budget. Although citizens might disagree with the recommendations of the city manager, they would better understand the realm of alternatives available. Citizens could understand that a call for a freeze on the property tax rate would necessitate reductions in city services, and conversely that providing additional services would require a substantial increase in property taxes.

Copies of the budget guide were made available to citizens at no cost. Copies were distributed at libraries, community centers, and city hall. The availability of the guide was publicized in the local media and in "City Page," a weekly advertisement purchased by the City of Fort Worth in the local paper, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Copies of the budget guide also were mailed to neighborhood and community groups and provided to local schools.

To help citizens weigh the key budget decisions and realize the financial impact of their desires, the City of Fort Worth developed a budget simulator program and made it available on computer diskette. The simulator, called Budgetmaker, leads users through a series of key budget decisions regarding city service levels and provides a budget and tax rate based on the results of these decisions. Budgetmaker forces citizens to face some of the dilemmas inherent in developing the budget. Each desire for new services is balanced against the drive to cut the property tax rate. Users are not allowed the luxury of calling for increased services while maintaining or reducing the tax rate. Budgetmaker requires...