"Priority based budgeting contributes to the city's long-term financial sustainability and allows the City of Boulder to serve its residents in the most effective, efficient and fiscally responsible manner possible."

At the Center for Priority Based Budgeting, we pride ourselves on being dependable long-term partners with the communities we work with across the nation. We have strived to develop our core concepts of Fiscal Health through Priority Based Budgeting (PBB) to be the most effective local government budgeting, planning and economic forecasting tools available.

We are often asked if our tools are scalable and replicable from one community or public entity to another. While we have always been confident that priority based budgeting truly is the most effective, scalable and replicable public finance budgeting tool available, the real proof is demonstrated by the size, diversity, geographic location and sheer variety of the over 70 communities who have implemented PBB.

And now we have yet another case study that demonstrates the long-term effectiveness and sustainability of priority based budgeting. The City of Boulder, Colorado first implemented PBB in 2011. And now in their fifth straight fiscal year of utilizing priority based budgeting to develop their annual budget, Boulder depends upon PBB as "the cornerstone of the city's budget process," and "the framework within which all budget decisions are made."

These are powerful statements from a city that is consistently listed as one of the top 10 best communities to live in in the US. We at the CPBB are so proud of how effectively the city's staff, leadership and elected officials have developed PBB into their work, and are honored to be partners with the City of Boulder, Colorado.

To learn more about the city's utilization of PBB in their 2015 budget read the summary (below) or click here for their full 2015 Budget Overview document.

Priority Based Budgeting

Purpose of Priority Based Budgeting

Priority Based Budgeting (PBB) builds on the city's prior Business Plan, which separates goals and actions into near term versus long term frames. PBB harnesses the policies and values of the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan and department strategic and master plans. As the cornerstone of the city's budget process, PBB gives the city three central benefits:

• Identifies key Council and community goals (see the next section on PBB Results and Attributes)
• Evaluates the impact of these goals of city programs and services
• Provides a tool for strategic decision-making in funding, adding and/or eliminating programs and services, and making more effective use of the city's limited resources  

 2015 PBB Outcomes

Now integrated into its fifth consecutive year of budget development, PBB is the framework in which all budget decisions are made. In the 2015 budget process, the city engaged in a streamlined PBB process, recognizing the significant work that had been done in prior years, as well as the demands on staff due to flood recovery and the implementation of an integrated Finance and Human Resources business solutions software package. The 2014 budget invested primarily in enhancing existing high priority programs, with the goal of an increased impact on achieving the PBB identified results. As a result, the 2015 PBB process was able to maintain the quartile information previously identified and the 2015 budget process focused on continued investment in high quartile programs and services, reflecting community priorities.

The city continues to have a favorable distribution of resources between the highest priority (Quartile 1) and lowest priority (Quartile 4) programs. Fewer resources are invested in programs yielding lower impact on community values. A listing of all 2015 programs by quartile is included in the following section (page 55). Community programs are those providing direct service to residents and businesses, while governance programs are those providing support services within the city to other departments.

Strategic Planning

This graph shows the distribution of proposed 2015 budget additions by Quartile. The largest amount of investment is in Quartile 1, with a decreasing amount in Quartile 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Taking into account inflation, the actual dollar increase in Quartile 4 funding actually represents flat to decreased investment levels. 

Another way to look at the resource shifts achieved by using PBB is shown in Table 2-01 below. The use of PBB in the 2015 budget process achieved a reduced proportion of city resources being allocated to Quartile 3 and 4 programs, little to no change in the proportion of resources allocated to Quartile 2 programs and an increased proportion of resources being allocated to Quartile 1 programs.

Budget Allocation By PBB Quartile

Final program scores created four Quartiles. The highest rated programs are rated Quartile 1. Figures 2-03 through 2-05 below demonstrate that the city is recommending an allocation of greater financial resources to programs identified as highly influential in achieving city results (Quartiles 1 and 2). Priority Based Budgeting provides the city with an additional tool to identify efficiencies and ensure that the city provides priority services to residents and businesses.




Congratulations again to the City of Boulder, Colorado! You remain a true priority based budgeting all-star and a leading PBB practitioner in local government fiscal stewardship! 
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