Nationally Recognized Guidelines

In order to receive this award, the City of Suffolk had to satisfy nationally recognized guidelines for effective budget presentation. These guidelines assess how well the budget serves 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 the fourteen mandatory criteria within those categories to receive the award.

Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA)

The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) is a major professional association servicing the needs of more than 18,000 appointed and elected local, state and provincial-level government officials and other finance practitioners. The GFOA established the Distinguished Budget Presentation Awards Program (Budget Awards Program) in 1984 to encourage and assist state and local governments to prepare budget documents of the very highest quality that reflect both the guidelines established by the National Advisory Council on State and Local Budgeting and the GFOA’s best practices on budgeting and then to recognize individual governments that succeed in achieving that goal.

Documents submitted to the Budget Awards Program are reviewed by selected members of the GFOA professional staff and by outside reviewers with experience in public-sector budgeting.