The City of Milton has earned “the highest form of recognition in government budgeting” – as well as special appreciation for its clear, transparent, effective presentation of strategic goals and strategies as well as performance measures.

The honors were recently bestowed by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), which represents more than 20,000 finance professionals in the United States and Canada involved in planning, financing, and implementing local governmental operations. Every year, the City submits its budget documents to GFOA so that organization’s experts can assess their quality on multiple levels – as Milton recently did with its “Budget Book” for Fiscal Year 2025, which ran from October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025.

That critical document can be found HERE: https://www.miltonga.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/7894/.

For the seventh straight year, GFOA gave the City of Milton its Distinguished Budget Presentation Award. This distinction is a result of Milton’s “Budget Book” being deemed proficient in four ways: as a policy document, financial plan, operations guide, and communications device.

The special recognitions came after all three reviewers of Milton’s “Budget Book” gave the City the highest scores possible in the “performance measures” and “strategic goals” categories. This is the second consecutive year that Milton has been lauded in this regard. 

Both reflect priorities for a City that believes budget decisions should be driven by sound, well-considered, forward-looking goals and strategies as well as the importance of smart, purposeful, data-driven accountability to show the efficacy of government spending and action.

“We owe it to Milton taxpayers to be detailed, intentional, and wise in showing not only what money is collected and spent, but why we do it and how well we do it,” Deputy City Manager Bernadette Harvill said. “These GFOA recognitions show that, as measured by that organization’s high standards, our City is providing the accountability and transparency that our citizens deserve.”