If each of us were to receive, u-m-m, let’s say $100, what would we do with the money?

The likelihood is that each of us has a different perspective on how we will put the money to use. Depending on our goals, objective and situation, we divert the money in different ways.

Some of us would go to an expensive restaurant. Some of us would use the money to buy food. Or pay bills. Or put it into savings. Or give it to relatives or friends. Or buy beer and cigarettes. Or donate it to charity.

The point is each of us will make a decision based on our goals, objectives or situation. Families, companies and governments go through the same process of assigning how they will direct revenues, anticipated and real, against the expenses they forecast.

All budgets identify categories under which we list the separate line items. For instance, in the category of “insurance,” the individual listings might be:

• Vehicle
• Life
• Medical & dental
• Homeowners or tenant, etc.

But, you may ask, how do we find out about the municipal budgeting process? How are elected public servants deciding to spend our money? Citizen participation at meetings and citizen communication with elected public servants are key ingredients. The absence of citizen participation can give some the impression that the budget is their private document and that they can do whatever they want in the budgeting process. The 2009 article from The Public Manager, Bringing transparency to municipal budgets: transparent, accountable budgets help build the public trust, is “spot-on” about identifying the need for transparency in the public sector budgeting process. The following paragraphs are extracted from the complete article.

“A democratic society needs transparent budgets, and they are the responsibility of those who construct them. If the budget presentation or audit report doesn’t respond to the citizens’ interests, they are not going to pay attention, but their lack of interest doesn’t justify poor content. The reason they are not interested is because the budget doesn’t answer their questions.

“Furthermore, all relevant operations … should be in the budget, not off-budget entities. Sometimes, the entities that go unrecorded in the local budget (the dirt swept under the rug) are those that have the financial problems or are major repositories of patronage. The budgeter needs to include everything in the budget that should be there.”

Budget Laws and Consequences

“Council members need to know the laws that frame the budget, but typically they don’t. They want to know why they can’t transfer money from one place where they have it to another where they don’t.

“Elected officials also need to know the quality of the revenue estimates they receive from their staff, but that’s typically not the type of information provided in the budget. They can figure it out, if they know what they are looking for, but most don’t.  They don’t have the time or the expertise. This is something that can be made much more transparent quite easily.

“Simply saying the police department gets a 5 percent increase is not transparent. Indicating that the funds will be used to add three more officers who will patrol specific neighborhoods – which should reduce the number of kids who are drawn into the criminal justice system – is much more so.

“The citizens and media need to know other information. The press wants to know the projects proposed, those that received funding, and those that didn’t. This often is not transparent when a project eligible for spending was not funded year after year. The press wants to know what was funded instead and why. Both the press and the citizenry want to know whether a city is wasting its money and how efficient its operations are.

“Public officials can employ methods to demonstrate that there is no corruption or waste, gaining back the lost public trust. These methods include performance budgeting, which uses benchmarks, best practices, and comparisons with other, high-performing cities.

“More broadly, the budget needs to relate to the goals of the community and city council. The goals of the community planning process, if there is one, need to be expressed in the budget. Again, this typically is not the slightest bit transparent.”

Making Information Clearer

“Better formatting is one way to make things clearer. More important, budgeters need to use the Internet much more, making the budget available in downloadable form. Let people make their own analyses. Budgets need to be in a form that allows for questioning and searches using key words. The backup documentation should be available through the Internet.”

In Pennsylvania, the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) has developed a recommended “Chart of Accounts to be used in the fiscal administration of Pennsylvania municipalities.”

“The account numbers and descriptions of accounts used in the Department of Community and Economic Development form DCED-CLGS-30, Annual Audit and Financial Report, are based on this Chart of Accounts. The Department of Community and Economic Development and the Department of Transportation encourage the use of accounting systems based on (this) Chart of Accounts.” The recommended chart of accounts (categories of expenses) starts on page 27 of the DCED Chart of Accounts publication.

“Cities say, ‘We can’t do this, we can’t tell you about the contracts, contractors, and bidding process because it would take up all of the budget.’ Actually, they can put it on a Web site. The Web site needs to include links to the laws that support the budget, highlighting the legal and illegal. These actions will make municipal budgeting much more transparent and accountable, building the public trust.”

Pennsylvania’s budget is posted at its Website available online.

Lancaster County’s budget is posted at its Website; this is comprehensive and it is updated monthly.

Several Lancaster County jurisdictions post their budgets at their Websites. Columbia is not one of those municipalities that opts to reveal its budget online. Frankly, we do not understand why any Customer focused public sector agency (including not for profit agencies) would not opt for transparency rather than the shroud of secrecy