SALEM – The City of Salem has received its seventeenth Distinguished Budget Presentation Award from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), a nation-wide nonprofit organization. The award is the only national awards program for governmental budgets.
The Distinguished Budget Presentation Award from the GFOA reflects the City’s commitment to meeting the highest principles of governmental budgeting. In order to receive the award, the City had to meet or exceed nationally recognized guidelines for an effective budget presentation.
“I’m very pleased that we have once again earned this recognition and distinction from the GFOA, a nation-wide public finance watch-dog organization,” said Mayor Dominick Pangallo. “We have consistently delivered transparent and informative budgets, based on real costs, carefully developed financial forecasts, and best practices in municipal governance. This award is reflective of the diligent work that goes into Salem’s budget and our financial practices, and it is a credit to the professional staff in our Finance Department, led over this past budget season by previous Finance Director Anna Freedman, and now by Finance Director James Leblanc.”
In awarding this recognition, GFOA stated that this award “represents a significant achievement by the entity and reflects the commitment of the governing body and staff to meeting the highest principles of governmental budgeting.” The City of Salem satisfied nationally recognized guidelines for effective budget presentation, designed to assess how well the City’s budget serves as a policy document, a financial plan, an operations guide, and a communications device.
The GFOA guidelines are designed to assess how well a municipality’s budget serve as a policy document, a financial plan, an operations guide, and a communications device. Budget documents must be rated proficient in all four categories and in fourteen mandatory criteria within those categories in order to receive the award.
