Linking budgets with strategic outcomes is an essential best practice for effective public financial management. Here are some ways the City of Salem, Oregon, links budgets with strategic outcomes:
Aligning Budgets with Strategic Plan: The City of Salem aligns its budget process with its strategic plan. This ensures the budget is directly linked to the city's goals, objectives, and priorities. The strategic plan serves as a roadmap for the budget process and helps the city prioritize its resources.
Performance Measures: The City of Salem uses performance measures to track progress toward achieving its strategic outcomes. These measures are linked to specific activities and initiatives in the budget. This helps the city evaluate the effectiveness of its programs and make data-driven decisions about where to allocate resources.
Citizen Engagement: The City of Salem actively engages citizens in the budget process. This includes soliciting feedback from residents through public meetings, surveys, and online forums. This helps ensure that the budget reflects the needs and priorities of the community.
Transparent Reporting: The City of Salem provides transparent budget and financial performance reporting. This includes publishing budget documents, financial reports, and performance data on the city's website. This helps build trust with the community and ensures accountability for how public funds are being used.
Overall, these practices help the City of Salem ensure that its budget is directly linked to its strategic outcomes and effectively prioritizes resources to achieve its goals.
Learn about the Transparent Reporting and Analytics Portal for Residents and how to navigate it.
The Transparent Reporting and Analytics Portal for Residents provides various ways to evaluate the City’s performance.