Local governments need a way to reach good decisions about police funding. The traditional local government budgeting system— take last year’s budget and make changes around the margins—is not up to the task.

Clearly, a better approach than the traditional budget is needed, and, fortunately, one is described by GFOA’s Financial Foundations Framework. It is based on a Nobel Prize-winning body of work about how to make good decisions on shared resources, like a local government and its budget. This article is based on the Financial Foundations research.

• Publication date: February 2021
• Author: Shayne Kavanagh