Leading the Way on Priority Based Budgeting

In a recent update, the Center for Priority Based Budgeting noted that Washington County is the national leader, having repurposed 13% of our budget from priority 3 & 4 expenses to priority 1 & 2 expenses.  This is a greater percentage than any other governmental body who has implemented Priority Based Budgeting.

Priority 1 & 2 expenses are critical expenses such as our County Sheriff's drug enforcement until.  in contrast, priority 3 & 4 expenses are less important.  A good example of a priority 4 expense was the County Sheriff's booth at the County Fair, where deputies would talk to the public and let kids color pictures and engage with our Sheriff's deputy.

Instead of funding new priority 1 & 2 expenses by burdening the community with higher taxes, we are finding ways to reduce our priority 3 & 4 expenses.  to do this, we are looking at a variety of solutions for the expenses.  A great, recent example was our County Administrator's effort called "Forever Honoring Our Veterans" in which he led fundraising effort to create a permanent endowment fund to take over the care of veteran's gravesites in our County.  The service will continue to be provided, but instead of using taxpayer money every year for a priority 3 expense, we will now be using privately-donated money.

Below is the information we received, showing how Washington County compares to some of the other governments across our country who have engaged in priority-based budgeting.