Best of breed examples: guidelines for your government budget.(The Bookshelf)(Preparing High Quality Budget Documents)(Book review)

Preparing High Quality Budget Documents

John Fishbein

Government Finance Officers Association

www.estoregfoa.org

2006, 270pp $45, GFOA members $70, nonmembers

The GFOA's recently released publication Preparing High Quality Budget Documents builds on a strong tradition of exemplary practices in governmental budgeting. Filled from beginning to end with real-life examples of the best of governmental budgeting, this comprehensive text by John Fishbein should be added to every budget practitioner's reference library as an authoritative source of best practices.

In 1984, the GFOA established its Distinguished Budget Presentation Awards Program to encourage governments to prepare budget documents of the highest quality to meet the needs of decision makers and citizens. The budget awards program establishes criteria to help the government finance officer craft a budget document that is effective as a policy document, an operations guide, a financial plan, and a communication device. This book provides explanations and numerous examples of the program's criteria. The illustrations, taken from exemplary budgets submitted to the program, highlight specific lessons to be learned, as well as common errors to be avoided. The examples selected represent a broad cross section of state and local governments of all types and sizes from both the United States and Canada.