Today's local governments are under great pressure to provide services faster, cheaper, and in more customized ways while meeting stringent standards for financial and performance accountability.

These trends, coupled with a growing distrust of public institutions, suggest that local governments have much to gain from effective communication with citizens about service delivery costs, processes, and priorities. Because resource allocation issues are very important to citizens, the budget document is an ideal platform for presenting that information.

The Budget As A Communication Tool

It discusses some of the challenges and drawbacks that often accompany attempts to usefully engage citizens in the budget process, and it provides several examples of simple but effective presentations of the information necessary to promote effective citizen understanding of and participation in the budget process.