Orange County wins award for budget practices

Orange County Government has received the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) of the United States and Canada.

“A tremendous amount of hard work is put into the annual County Budget and I appreciate the diligence of Orange County’s budget staff,” Orange County Executive Steven M. Neuhaus said. “This award reflects Orange County’s commitment to the highest principles of governmental budgeting, which has resulted in the lowest property tax rate since 1964. I commend the Budget staff for their efforts and I’m grateful that they were recognized.”

The Distinguished Budget Presentation award is designed to encourage and recognize exemplary budgeting practices and is the highest form of recognition in governmental budgeting.

To receive the budget award, government entities must satisfy nationally recognized guidelines for effective budget presentation. These guidelines are designed to assess how well an entity’s budget serves as a policy document, a financial plan, an operations guide, and a communications device.

Orange County’s budget documents are transparent, providing fiscal summaries, details of the budgeting process and in-depth overview of how County government functions. The annual County budget is accompanied by a detailed booklet that provides highlights and key components of the budget. Budget documents can be found at orangecountygov.com.

“We are honored to be recognized by GFOA for the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award,” Orange County Budget Director Deborah Slesinski said. “The Budget Team has put in a lot of effort and many hours of hard work to make this happen. Our highest priority is to maintain a balanced and fiscally responsible budget while ensuring transparency to the community we serve.”

GFOA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization serving 16,000 government finance offices across the nation.