The City of Roswell was the first city in Georgia to implement priority based budgeting in November 2013! At that time, the Roswell Patch reported:

The Roswell Mayor & Council will get an overview of priority-based budgeting Wednesday during a special called work session.

Last month, the Mayor & Council approved spending for consulting work from the Center for Priority-Based Budgeting, which will be introduced and whose representatives will outline the concept at the work session.

The Denver-based organization says that priority-based budgeting, which came into vogue four years ago, "aligns city services and programs," and that the concept has gained more interest from local governments since the recession.

The Alliance for Innovation explains the concept this way:
 
"Priority-based budgeting is a way for local governments to spend within their means by continuously focusing on the results most relevant to their communities and the programs that influence those results to the highest possible degree. The process involves a systematic review of existing services, why they exist, what value they offer to citizens, how they benefit the community, what they cost, and what objectives and citizen demands they are achieving. Each service or program is assigned a score based on its contribution to desired results so that tax dollars can be allocated to those with the greatest impact."

The City of Roswell has now successfully implemented priority based budgeting into their annual budget. And we couldn't be more excited with their results! Congratulations City of Roswell! Read more about how the city implemented priority based budgeting below.

From the City of Roswell, Georgia website:

The goal of the City of Roswell’s FY 2015 budget is to provide high quality services and programs that enable the City to achieve results that reflect the priorities of the community. These results include: