The City of Walla Walla started preparing a budget for 2013 and 2014 back in the spring when the Council’s Finance Committee began “reviewing priorities” in May. A two-page “budget assumptions” document was discussed at City Council work session on June 26.
If past history is any guide, no detailed information about the City’s revenue forecasts and spending priorities will be available for serious public discussion until sometime in October. A memo on the City’s budget process says that “a public hearing is held in November to obtain input from the general public and in December, the biennial budget is adopted by Council.”
That’s not really good enough.
With low-cost, Internet-enabled publishing tools widely available, there’s no reason why preliminary estimates and planning documents shouldn’t be freely available on the City’s website much earlier in the process.
Yes, City staff and managers need some time to work on their estimates and proposals. But once the preliminary estimates are available to City Council members, the data – and the decisions – should be shared with the public as widely as modern technology allows.
Walla Walla Watchdogs 