Medford Has An Award-Winning Budget For The First Time

MEDFORD, MA — The city received the "Distinguished Budget Presentation Award" from the Government Finance Officers Association for the Fiscal Year 2021 municipal budget. It is the first time Medford has received the award, which is the highest form of recognition in governmental budgeting.

The award "represents a significant achievement" by a municipality that "reflects the commitment of the governing body and staff to meet the highest principles of governmental budgeting," according to the GFOA.

In order to receive the award, the city published a budget document that met the stringent GFOA program criteria as a policy document, as a financial plan, as an operations guide, and as a communication device.

"Meeting the stringent criteria set forth by GFOA for the FY21 Budget was among the first goals I had when coming into office last year," Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn said in a statement. "We will look to improve on the work already begun and continue to present a budget that is balanced, clear, transparent, and easy to navigate. I am incredibly proud of the hard work put in by the City’s budget team in meeting the high expectations for this award and delivering in one of the most challenging budget cycles in history."

Lungo-Koehn's administration overhauled the budget layout to include in-depth analysis of each department, its year-over-year expenditures and accounting. In August 2020, the city's bond rating agency also affirmed the city's long-term bond rating of AA+ with a "stable outlook" for its credit, citing strong financial practices and policies and more robust budgeting and planning framework contributing to a stable financial profile.

"When building the FY21 budget we had a clear mission – deliver a responsible, on-time budget that met the Mayor’s goals of transparency and clarity. This would be a challenge in a normal budget year, but was made all the more complicated by the pandemic, and the economic and fiscal issues that came with it," said Aleesha Nunley-Benjamin, Finance Director/Auditor for the City of Medford. "We are excited to be recognized by GFOA for meeting that challenge and are looking forward to building on last year’s work in the upcoming budget cycle."

The city is currently planning for Fiscal Year 2022, and the administration aims to further improve the budget process and enhance transparency for the Medford community. Early in 2021, Medford hired an Assistant Finance Director/Budget Manager who will spearhead the budgeting process, and the city is expanding its contract with ClearGov – used to provide the city's fiscal transparency platform – to modernize Medford's budget development and presentation process to a cloud based, interactive system for use across the administration.

The FY21 budget is available for public review at www.medfordma.org/mayor/city-budget.