Budget Presentation Policy

Julio Gonzalez Altamirano

Dear Colleagues,

I've drafted a policy resolution that provides clarity around our shared desire to provide the public with a high-quality document for our adopted annual budget.

Depending on Board interest, we could pass it as a rider/amendment to the budget or a standalone Board resolution alongside the budget or fold it into our financial policies.

Realistically, there is a foremost budget presentation standard that meets the proposed criteria: the GFOA's Distinguished Budget Presentation Award. For example, the City of Georgetown's budget policies prescribe application to that specific award. See page 3:

https://records.georgetowntexas.gov/WebLink/DocView.aspx?id=717729&dbid=0&repo=Georgetown&cr=1

The draft policy below allows staff to propose any standard that meets our high-level budget presentation policy criteria.

To check for applicability, I did conduct a review of the FY2025 GFOA award winners. There are nine PHAs/PHA-type-organizations on the list: Denver, Chicago, NYCHA, Atlanta, Montgomery County HOC, and El Paso HOME. As you know, several of those deploy HFA/HFC-type powers.

There are also ~20 local entities in CAPCOG that received the award. Austin, Pflugerville, Cedar Park and Travis County, but also CapMetro, TCAD, Central Health, Austin Transit Partnership, and Travis County ESD #2. The aforementioned City of Georgetown is a standout recipient in central Texas having received a GFOA award 41 times.

I have shared this proposal with the F&A committee and defer to their recommendation on how to proceed.

Julio

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APPENDIX — STRATEGIC HFC BUDGET PRESENTATION QUALITY POLICY

Whereas, Strategic HFC recognizes that a high-quality annual budget supports informed Board decision-making, public understanding, transparency, and accountability and is consistent with Strategic HFC’s mission as a public enterprise.

Be it resolved that the annual budget shall therefore be prepared and presented using a recognized Budget Presentation Standard.

Be it further resolved that the that:

A. "Budget Presentation Standard" means a framework for communicating public budgets that:

1. Is well-established within civil society, professional public-finance organizations, or relevant government trade media;

2. Is used by Central Texas governments, housing agencies, or public enterprises;

3. Makes its criteria publicly and readily available to Travis county residents; and

4. Is reasonably applicable to a special-purpose public enterprise.

Qualifying standards may include the **Government Finance Officers Association Distinguished Budget Presentation Award criteria**, or another comparable published public-sector budgeting framework satisfying the requirements above. G

B. Annual Budget Submission

1. The Executive Director shall identify the specific Budget Presentation Standard used as a minimum set of requirements for preparing each proposed annual budget.

2. The proposed budget shall make every reasonable effort to satisfy the selected standard.

3. Where the selected standard includes an external review or recognition program for which Strategic HFC is eligible, the adopted budget should be submitted for such review unless the Board directs otherwise.

C. Governance

The Finance & Administration Committee shall periodically review the Budget Presentation Standard used by Strategic HFC and may recommend changes to the full Board.

Selection of a materially different standard shall be accompanied by a brief explanation of how the alternative satisfies Section A.

Jan Wenig

Thank you Director Altamirano for your research and writing on the GFOA budget award process. I know you brought this to F&A as the Committee Chair in 2025. However, I was not aware until now that GFOA had substantially revised the criteria for their highly regarded Budget Award. Having read through the new criteria I find this iteration to be more applicable to quasi-governmental entities such as ours. I invite all Directors to take a look at the Q's GFOA is using to evaluate each applicant's budget content and process in determining who qualifies for an award. The criteria are simple and straightforward, and to my reading highlight much of the same content which we consider as a Board in our Annual Budget Review Process. I found this exercise to be instructive as we prepare for a discussion of the 2027 proposed budget.
https://www.gfoa.org/budget-award-2026-criteria

The F&A Committee engaged in a preliminary discussion of GFOA certification in the Spring, and we are scheduled to return to the topic in our next meeting on Sept 16. I look forward to hearing from my colleagues and staff on this matter, please feel free to post here on the Forum.