“While Priority Based Budgeting doesn’t replace our traditional budgeting process, it provides a new approach to our budget decision making and increases transparency for our residents.” - East Lansing City Manager George Lahanas
The City of East Lansing, Michigan is committed to sharing city data with the public to increase transparency, accountability, customer service, and empower citizens with the ability to harness a vast array of useful information to improve life in the city.
East Lansing is one of five priority based budgeting communities in Michigan, joining City of Battle Creek, City of Kalamazoo, City of Lansing and City of Ann Arbor as data-driven Michigan PBB communities. However, East Lansing is the first Michigan PBB community to publish their PBB data through their new Open PBB Data community dashboard!
East Lansing Open PBB Data is specifically designed to transparently share all the city’s priority based budgeting data. Through this Open PBB Data set, the community will now have the opportunity to:
Translates the city’s line-item budget into a program budget
Reveals the prioritization of every program in the city budget
Show exactly how much it costs the city to deliver every program (service)
Demonstrate exactly how much city staff support is required to deliver every program (service)
Exhibit the relevance of each program (service) in relation to community results
Show if a program is mandated (by Federal, State or local government) to be delivered
Demo if the city is a sole provider of a program or if others (public or private entity) are delivering similar programs
Present the level of reliance on the city citizens have for program delivery
Reveal program level revenue and if fee-based programs pay for themselves
Demonstrate the level in which every single city program impacts community results
Open PBB Data is the premier open data site in the nation. Never before have cities had the ability to share such comprehensive program level data with their citizens. With East Lansing Open PBB Data, citizens will be able to:
Obtain a thorough understanding of all the programs the city delivers, what it costs to deliver programs, and understand whether the programs contribute to community results
Understand exactly what programs are funded through tax dollars
Evaluate and analyze how city programs impact community results
Communicate with the city to evolve the prioritization of programs
East Lansing business owners and other public entities will have an opportunity to evaluate all the city programs to determine where partnership opportunities exist
East Lansing Press Release
Following several months of implementation, the City of East Lansing has launched its Priority Based Budgeting (PBB) community-facing data dashboard.
The dashboard provides community members with an opportunity to see how funds and resources are being allocated across the City of East Lansing’s departments and shows how departmental programs align with the City’s identified priorities and goals.
“While Priority Based Budgeting doesn’t replace our traditional budgeting process, it provides a new approach to our budget decision making and increases transparency for our residents,” said East Lansing City Manager George Lahanas.
In the Open PBB dashboard, citizens can view a tree plot that breaks down the City’s budget by department and the programs within each department. Residents can click on results, program costing and program attributes tab sets at the top of the webpage to see how various departmental programs align with each of the City’s identified priorities (results), categories and attributes.
Citizens can click on the information icon in the bottom right corner of the header image for a walkthrough of the dashboard.
“The Open PBB dashboard is specifically designed to transparently share all of the City’s priority-based budgeting data with citizens and inform our community of the true cost of providing City services,” said Lahanas.
City officials plan to use the Priority Based Budgeting data to make important decisions during budget deliberations and, over the years, work will be done to improve the data and resource alignment in order to achieve the City’s long-term strategic goals. The data will also be used to make important decisions that result in cost efficiencies and prioritization of resources.
About East Lansing Priority Based Budgeting
The City of East Lansing, MI is determined to create long-term stability by evaluating how resources are used and how those uses align with the priorities of our community. In 2019, the City of East Lansing implemented Priority Based Budgeting (PBB) – a city-wide approach to budget decision-making that assesses the desired results of a community against the programs the government is currently offering and how impactful those programs are in achieving the desired outcomes. The scores do not necessarily represent the inherent value of a program.
Unlike the traditional incremental approach to government budgeting, where the current year’s budget becomes the basis for the next year’s spending plan, PBB allows communities, such as East Lansing, to understand their core values and then budget according to those values. The underlying principles of the PBB framework is to question past patterns of spending and, instead, to prioritize resources to achieve the long-term strategic goals of the community. PBB also informs communities of the true cost of providing services and enhances transparency and accountability within the budgeting process.
While in its first year of PBB implementation, the City will stride to improve the data and resource alignment year after year.
We are thrilled to partner with the City of East Lansing, MI! Thank you Team East Lansing for your commitment and dedication to priority based budgeting and sharing this critical data with your community!
Contact us to discover more about PBB and how to transparently bring your PBB data to life!
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