Florida property tax reform confronted Polk County with immediate ($15 million) and potential future ($45 million) structural deficits. Realizing that across the board cutting was just "thinning the soup", the County Manager and the Director of Finance and Strategy understood they had to re-prioritize the counties objectives and therefore its budget. They involved managers, line staff, citizens and board in a comprehensive initiative to "Manage for Results". Adapting the basic Budgeting for Outcomes approach, they incorporated significant citizen involvement and public transparency, with a very active citizen guidance team and regular public broadcasting of the working meetings.
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