This is Not the Way We've Always Done It: Finding a New Approach to Budget Communication

Effectively communicating budget information can be difficult. Government finance professionals must clearly articulate both financial and non-financial information to diverse stakeholders, each with their own level of fiscal literacy, biases, interests, and preferred style of communication. When finance professionals attempt to be everything to everyone, the budget message can easily become lengthy, confusing, and include irrelevant information. Rather than producing budgets simply because it has always been done, governments can identify better approaches.

In this session, speakers will discuss the importance of concise budget messages that answer critical questions and the role of the budget document and other complementary methods in communicating them. The session will also highlight GFOA's new budget award criteria, which emphasize essential questions and clear, focused responses for public stakeholders.