7/21/2017 - Huntington’s Budget Presentation Receives National Award for Sixth Consecutive Year
For the sixth consecutive year, Huntington’s budget presentation has won recognition from the national organization representing government finance professionals.
The Government Finance Officers Association recently notified the Town that it met the criteria for a Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for the 2017 Town budget. The award followed a review by a panel drawn from more than 525 professionals nationwide that assessed how the Town’s budget satisfied nationally recognized guidelines for effective budget presentation. The main factors weighed were how well the budget serves as a policy document, financial plan, operations guide and communication device. The panel needed to rate the budget as “proficient” in all four categories, including 14 mandatory criteria within those categories.
In documents notifying the Town of the award, the GFOA noted the award “reflects the commitment of the governing body and staff to meeting the highest principles of governmental budgeting… Award recipients have pioneered efforts to improve the quality of budgeting and provide an excellent example for other governments throughout North America.”
“Government transparency begins with helping residents understand how their tax dollars are being spent. Presenting the budget in a clear, easy-to-read-and-understand format helps demonstrate that we are managing our resources properly to provide desired services while holding down taxes,” Huntington Supervisor Frank P. Petrone said. “We are proud of our budget’s clarity and how it details implementation of the Town’s prudent fiscal policies and we appreciate the continuing recognition from this distinguished organization.”
The GFOA is a nonprofit professional association serving more than 19,000 government finance professionals throughout North America. The GFOA established the Distinguished Budget Presentation Awards Program in 1984 to encourage and assist state and local governments to prepare budget documents of the very highest quality that reflect both the guidelines established by the National Advisory Council on State and Local Budgeting and the GFOA’s best practices on budgeting and then to recognize individual governments that succeed in achieving that goal. The Distinguished Budget Awards Program is the only national awards program in governmental budgeting.