Salem Receives Tenth Distinguished Budget Presentation Award

The City of Salem has received its tenth 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 Kim Driscoll. “We have consistently delivered transparent and informative budgets, based on real costs, carefully developed financial forecasts, and best practices in municipal governance. I’m proud that we’ve managed to turn multi-million-dollar deficits into record stabilization funds, achieve the highest bond rating in the City’s history, and secure grant and other outside dollars to lessen the need to rely on taxpayers. 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.”

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.