FY2021 Budget

BUDGET PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

Budget planning, development and implementation is a year-round focus for Town Council and staff. Careful attention to revenue forecasting, management of expenditures, and purposeful attention to key projects and initiatives facilitates recognition of and capitalizing on opportunities as they become available. In addition to ongoing attention to day-to-day operations, elected officials and professional staff address policy and process issues on a regular basis. Short-term goals and long-range planning both require care and attention. Decisions in one area impact those in another. There is no shortage of ideas and options than can be considered as we bring individual values and choices together in creative and cohesive ways, with attention to strategic plan goals. We have worked to encapsulate those values and choices into a responsible balanced budget. FY 2020 has been a year of transition and change, with substantial time and attention at both the elected official and staff levels on completing major projects, some of which have been underway for many years. Capital investment planning has been the major focus of efforts for projects initiated in FY 2020 and ongoing intensive discussions to comprehensively evaluate and update capital project concept profiles through productive prioritization exercises. Town Council began its work to formulate policies in key areas that will help in future prioritization decisions and bond referendum discussions. Several key initiatives that will guide and frame future budget and operational decisions, including the land use plan update, affordable housing, public transportation, and land acquisition for projects and other purposes, such as open and green space are in development. These critical conversations will help amplify the aspirations and commitments of our elected leaders for our community. Operationally, we continue to strive to find new ways to engage with our community though provision of desired and necessary services and through cultivating interaction and feedback with all stakeholders in being part of the vitality of Morrisville. Engagement of our advisory boards is high, and effective use of social media and other engagement tools is ongoing. Accessibility to information and data has also been a highlight this year, with the introduction of a tool that will provide traffic data and other related analytics that help in traffic and development related discussions, and investment in several cloud-based initiatives that facilitate enhanced technological capacity for customer facing data sharing. One signature project – conversion of our legacy based financial system to Munis and EnerGov – was implemented this year. This project moves the town forward by enhancing our own financial management, reporting and brings our development services customer service into the electronic age, providing efficiencies and time savings for both customers and staff. Town staff is eager to serve the public in the most efficient and effective way. Staff constantly seeks ways to enhance performance and identify ways to achieve service excellence. Our staff “experts” are responsible for ensuring Town Council is aware of essential needs and for facilitating awareness of unmet and anticipated future needs. This process is ongoing and iterative, i.e., builds on informed knowledge, inquisitive inquiry, difficult priority setting, and budget capacity parameters.

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