Connect the Budget to the Imagine Cary Community Plan.

Imagine Cary is the Town’s strategic plan. It is updated as conditions and community needs change. The plan states a community vision, identify residents’ concerns and priorities, and establishes measurable goals. It should:

• Connect each major program and expenditure to a specific goal in Imagine Cary.
• Explain how proposed spending will advance that goal and how success will be measured.
• Report annually on results, including goals that were not met and the reasons why.

Give Residents a Meaningful Role

Residents should be involved early enough to influence the budget, not merely invited to comment after the principal decisions have been made.

• Create a citizens budget advisory board to assist Town staff and the Council in reviewing priorities, spending proposals, and the effect of the budget on property taxes.
• Offer public classes explaining how Cary’s budget process works, how money moves among funds, and how the property-tax rate is determined.
• Hold at least two public budget open houses at different times so more residents can participate.
• Form a resident and staff working group to examine savings and appropriate revenue sources that could reduce pressure for property-tax increases.

Review Existing Spending Before Adding New Spending

Many governments use incremental budgeting: the process of carrying the current budget forward to the next year, then adding new spending. This approach is convenient, but it needlessly extends programs, positions, and projects that no longer have sufficient public value.

Before adding new expenditures, Cary should review existing programs and staff positions for continued need, measurable results, and cost. Proposed reductions or eliminations should be listed publicly, with the reasons for each recommendation and the service consequences. The Council should review those decisions as part of adopting the budget.

Zero-based budgeting is a more exacting method in which departments must justify spending from the ground up rather than assuming that the current level will continue. A complete zero-based review of the entire Town every year would be time-consuming. Cary could instead conduct rotating zero-based reviews of selected departments or major programs, so that every significant area receives a thorough review on a regular schedule.

Present Genuine Budget Alternatives

Town staff should present several spending scenarios before recommending a final budget. For example, the scenarios might show the effects of a 10 percent reduction, a five percent reduction, no overall increase, a three percent increase, and a five percent increase.

Each scenario should identify what would and would not be funded, including programs, projects, positions, and service levels, and should also describe the likely effect on property tax. Publishing the alternatives would allow the Council and residents to compare the choices and understand why one scenario was selected.

Make the Budget Book Understandable

The budget book is the Town’s principal public document explaining its annual financial plan. It ordinarily brings together the manager’s recommended budget, the Council’s adopted budget, revenue sources, departmental spending, staffing, capital projects, debt, fund balances, and supporting explanations. Its purpose should be to let an ordinary resident understand where the money comes from, where it goes, and how the budget affects services and taxes.

Cary’s budget book appears comprehensive, but several changes would make it easier to understand and evaluate:

• Include a plain-language glossary defining recommended budget, adopted budget, amended or adjusted budget, and estimated actual spending.
• For each major department, program, and expenditure, show both the dollar change and percentage change from the comparable prior-year amount, and explain significant variances.
• Show authorized and filled staff positions by department, together with positions added, eliminated, or transferred.
• Explain the fund balance with a schedule showing the beginning balance, additions, withdrawals, transfers, expected ending balance, and the Town’s fund-balance policy target.
• Distinguish recurring expenses from one-time expenditures so residents can see which decisions will affect future budgets.

Conclusion

These practices would not predetermine the size of Cary’s budget. They would improve the budget process by requiring clearer priorities, regular review of existing spending, meaningful alternatives, and explanations that residents can follow. The result would be a budget process in which the Council and taxpayers can see what is being proposed, what was rejected, why the choices were made, and what those choices will cost.