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Committee sets budget training and begins talks on program-level budgeting and KPIs
Summary
The committee scheduled a March 20 training and discussed shifting budget review toward program narratives, line-item baselines and key performance indicators to help legislators evaluate recurring vs. one-time costs.
County Administrator Norma Jane told the committee the county will hold a training for legislators and budget preparers on Thursday, March 20, at 2 p.m. in the RACE Conference Room, 55 Brown Road, to give an overview of budgeting practices and to start a deeper conversation about the 2026 budget process.
Legislators used the session to push for practical changes: Deborah and others argued for a clearer process to identify maintenance-of-effort items, isolate true new initiatives, and avoid treating multi-service programs as monoliths. Norma and fiscal staff described a plan to present departments with five-year trends and to ask departments to separate fixed maintenance costs from new initiatives during budget submission.
Committee members and department heads discussed the value of program narratives and key performance indicators (KPIs) to help elected officials assess whether programs should be continued, altered, or ended. Several legislators suggested that program-level narratives be distributed to program committees before expanded budget committee review so committee members can ask more informed questions.
Smaller departments and department heads said they are willing to provide more detailed program descriptions, but they and staff warned that fully granular "zero-based" budgeting would be disruptive without a multi-year implementation plan. Norma and staff said they will work with program committees and department heads to pilot the new approach and bring more detailed guidance to the committee's next meeting.
Corso Comphy, the county administrator (participating virtually), said administration staff will help line-by-line and present a consolidated view so the legislature can focus on policy decisions rather than transactional tasks.
The committee agreed to put further discussion on a future agenda and to start work with program committees on information requests and presentation formats ahead of the formal budget cycle.
