Zero-Base Budgeting: Modern Experiences and Current Perspectives (5-18-12)

"When using zero-base budgeting (ZBB), a government builds a budget from the ground up, starting from zero. Though the apex of its popularity is long past, ZBB has seen renewed interest in today's environment of fiscal constraint, not least because the 'zero' in zero-base budgeting sends a powerful message that taxes and spending will be held in check. However, the time lapse between the zenith of ZBB in the late 1970s and the present, as well as the political rhetoric surrounding the technique, has obscured the theory and practice of ZBB for many.

In elucidating this sometimes controversial and misunderstood budgeting method, this article will first describe the theoretical process of ZBB; however, because 'textbook' ZBB is very rare, it will describe how GFOA research found ZBB is actually used in practice. Finally, the article will describe how public officials can decide if ZBB is right for their circumstances."

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Cities Tout Municipal Tap Water as Better Than Bottled (4-13-12)

"Six years ago, the Fiji Water company made headlines for a cheeky advertising campaign that quipped, 'The label says Fiji because it's not bottled in Cleveland.' Naturally, the ads suggested, bottled spring water imported from the South Pacific must be better than tap water from northeast Ohio. Right?

Well, no. In response to the ads, Cleveland tested its city water against the Fiji brand. What it found was that the bottled water contained 6.3 micrograms of arsenic per liter; the city's tap water was arsenic free. Fiji apologized for its faux pas -- or is that eau pas? -- but the story is still gleefully repeated by water utility directors, who will tell you that tap water is almost always better than bottled.

'[Tap water] is right for the environment, it is cost effective and it is tested more extensively than the water in a plastic bottle,' says George Hawkins, general manager of DC Water, the water and sewer authority for Washington, D.C."

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Cities of the Future; Cities of the Past (3-30-12)

"In the midst of the 1980s, at a time when poverty, violence and abandonment had settled over most of the big cities in America, the great urban historian Donald Olsen made an intriguing prediction. 'If we are to achieve an urban renaissance,' Olsen wrote, 'it is the 19th-century city that will be reborn.'

It was a cryptic comment, and Olsen is no longer around to be asked precisely what he meant, but he was not the only urbanist of taste and judgment who voiced similar sentiments. Jean-Christophe Bailly, the French architect and critic, looked at cities all across North America around the same time and declared that 'the 19th century invented modernity, and it must now be reinvented to make up for the damage done by the systematic negligence of 20th-century urban planners.'

Today, more than a quarter century later, at least a part of this vision seems to be coming true."

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Tulsa's Pain-and Gain (3-8-12)

"Tulsa, Okla., is among the many local governments that have been pushed to the brink of fiscal disaster by the recession. By the time Mayor Dewey Bartlett Jr. took office in December 2009, new classes had been discontinued in the academies that train police officers and firefighters, street lights had been turned off, and the grass was no longer being mowed on public property.

Even those cuts weren't enough. The city had blown through 80 percent of its reserve fund during the first five months of the fiscal year, and Mayor Bartlett's new team had 45 days to find another $10 million in cuts. Like so many governments, Tulsa was trying to do too much. As a result, core services were suffering."

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Budget Committee Presentations Online (2-24-12)

City department and agency presentations to the City Council's Budget Committee are now online, along with the schedule of future presentations.  The Budget Committee is meeting in preparation for the development of the FY2012-13 Budget and Capital Plan.

The Charter provides that the Mayor will submit a proposed budget to the City Council by May 1st. The Council will review and revise the proposal, and adopt a budget at least seven days before June 30th, the end of the City's fiscal year.

View Budget Committee Presentations