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Weekly UpdatesMost citizens have little knowledge about local government budgeting and its impact on their communities. This may be driven by the fact that over the last few decades, the American public has grown increasingly apathetic to political affairs and civic involvement. A recent Gallup poll showed that public trust in state and local government has declined in the last five years, due largely to the slow economy and its negative effect on budgets. (1) To counter these trends, many local governments are strategically engaging the public in local affairs through citizen education. Governments of all types and sizes are now using a variety of strategies--including newsletters, annual reports, radio programs, call centers, and high school civic classes--to develop an informed citizenry that is both interested in and capable of contributing to local policymaking.
Citizen education serves an important function in a democracy, especially in a large and complex society such as ours. Access to information is necessary for citizens to exercise political power and participate in public affairs. Citizen education provides people with the tools to understand and influence the decision-making process. Evidence suggests that when citizens participate in government activities, they are more likely to view the government as trustworthy and responsive to public concerns. (2) Ultimately, citizen education can strengthen collaboration between citizens and the government by promoting awareness and communication.
Contrary to popular perceptions, a budget is more than just a bunch of numbers; it is one of the most important public documents produced at the local level. By allocating public resources, it determines the direction, priorities, and goals of the community. Budgeting has historically been the domain of senior administrators, finance officers, and budget analysts, many of whom believed that the technical details of public finance and accounting were too complicated for average citizens. As a result, citizens were often excluded from the budgeting process until the outcomes had already been determined. This model has shifted dramatically over the last 30 years. The new model of public administration is based on the assumption that given adequate information, citizens can develop enough knowledge of government finance to effectively participate in the budgeting process.
This article discusses four ways local governments are educating citizens about budgeting: budgets-in-brief, the Internet, public access television, and citizen academies. These methods vary in terms of the time and effort they require from citizens and the types of media or technology employed. While these methods represent just a few effective strategies for educating citizens, they illustrate the range of strategies local governments are using to reach their diverse constituencies.
BUDGETS-IN-BRIEF
For citizen education to be successful, local governments must provide information that is clear and easy to understand. Also known as popular budgets, budgets-in-brief provide a concise overview of the annual budget and its key issues. Many citizens think budgets are too boring or complex to read and understand. Budgets-in-brief are an attractive alternative, because they are written specifically for a lay audience and focus on the most relevant aspects of the budget. These reports vary greatly in length and detail, but they typically include most, if not all, of the following components:
* Background information and demographics
* Discussion of local economic conditions and macroeconomic trends affecting the budget
* Organizational chart or overview of local government structure
* Statement of mission, goals, or objectives
* Operating budget--breakdown of revenues by source, breakdown of expenditures by function, descriptions of programs and services, general fund balance
* Capital budget--breakdown of revenues by source, summary of capital projects and their costs
* Details on property taxes, including total assessed valuation and rates
* Debt service funding
* Staffing information
* Historical comparisons of revenues, expenditures, property taxes, staffing levels, etc.
Pierce County, Washington, publishes a budget-in-brief to "enhance [citizen] understanding of how the county is organized, the services it provides, and the funding sources used to provide those services." The document offers a high-level overview of the adopted budget, placing the spending plan in a larger context by describing local and macro economic conditions and showing how revenues, expenditures, and staffing levels have changed over time. The budget-in-brief also helps acquaint citizens with their community by providing general facts and information, such as the number of hospitals and school districts in the area and the recent activities of some of the region's major industries. Exhibit 1, which is taken from the document's table of contents, provides a sense for the kind of budgetary information Pierce County deems important for its citizens.
Exhibit 1: Pierce County Budget-in-Brief Contents
Hillsborough County, Florida, developed its Taxpayer's Guide to the Hillsborough County Budget to educate its citizens on the basic issues of county budgeting in Florida and to overcome public confusion and distrust over changes in the county's taxes and taxing authorities. First published in 1992, the Taxpayer's Guide is designed as a supplement to conventional budget documents and is intended to provide an objective overview of what drives the annual budget. It allows citizens to gain insight into the budget while the next year's budget is still under preparation. The Taxpayer's Guide is distributed widely to social and civic organizations, homeowners' associations, and civic watchdog groups, as well as to the media, including local newspapers, radio and television stations, and their editorial boards. (3)
INTERNET
The Internet has become an increasingly important avenue through which state and local governments disseminate information and provide services to the public. E-government has been heralded as a transformational force, enhancing the way citizens interact with government and engage in public discourse. On a practical level, e-government serves citizens as a convenient resource--offering one-stop shopping 24 hours a day, seven days a week--and helps bureaucracies operate more efficiently. An advantage of the Internet over other forms of communication is that knowledge can be transmitted easily, rapidly, and cheaply to a wide group of people. Evidence suggests that e-government may positively impact citizens' confidence in government. (4)
The Internet is a powerful tool for educating citizens about local budgeting. A good example is the Metropolitan Government of Nashville (Metro), which developed what it calls the Citizen's Guide to the Metro Budget to increase budgetary transparency and help stakeholders understand and participate in the budgeting process. The Web site, which is accessible from Metro's home page, provides an overview of the budgeting process, details of the current year budget (including plans and progress toward achieving Metro's priorities), and information on departmental activities and finances. The Citizen's Guide also provides access to budget presentations and council meetings with streaming video. By presenting information in a condensed format that is easy to understand, Metro hoped to focus budgetary conversations less on accounting details and more on how resource allocations impact the community. (5)
The City of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has also created a comprehensive resource for accessing budgetary information. The city's Web site devotes a section to the Controller-Auditor's Office, which provides a downloadable summary of the city's budget, as well as departmental budgets broken down by funds. Like Metro Nashville, Cedar Rapids provides tools to help citizens understand the budget, including a guide that explains key budgetary concepts and a glossary of terms and acronyms used in the budget. (6) Exhibit 2 shows the portal to the budgetary section of Cedar Rapids' Web site.
The Internet's growing presence has broad implications for the political process. Although the Internet is sometimes criticized for encouraging isolated, anonymous interaction instead of face-to-face communication, it has the potential to enhance citizen participation and government accountability by making information and ideas more widely available and providing forums for public debate. Many observers believe that the Internet allows citizens to achieve something closer to direct democracy than is normally feasible in a large society. (7)
Unfortunately, not everyone has access to Internet resources, which raises concerns about inequality in the ability to obtain information and therefore to exercise political power. Common obstacles include lack of access to a computer or other necessary technology; uncertainty about what information is available or how to obtain it; and lack of the education, skills, or experience to understand and effectively use the information provided.
PUBLIC ACCESS TELEVISION
Despite the growing influence of the Internet, television remains the most popular and widespread form of mass communication. While little more than half of American households own a computer, nearly all households own at least one television set. The Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 provided for the establishment of public, educational, and government (PEG) access channels, which serve the public as an open forum. (8) The Federal Communication Commission mandates that cable franchises dedicate a prescribed number of hours to free, local public affairs programming. PEG access television has the potential to reach a wide and diverse audience. It raises the visibility of local governments by providing them with an avenue to communicate directly with the public.
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