BROWARD COUNTY BUDGET-IN-BRIEF

Outcome Based Budgeting Process

Fiscal Year 2010 is the third year for the outcome-based budget process in Broward County. The
process puts additional focus on results or “outcomes” in the development of the budget. These
outcomes are the results the County Commission has determined to be of high priority. In addition to
focusing on outcomes, the process is also zero-based, meaning that continued funding for existing
programs or expenses is not assumed.
The Board of County Commissioners has consistently balanced the demands for services with the
need for responsible stewardship of public money from taxpayers facing ever greater financial burdens.
By taking a proactive approach to budgeting, Broward was prepared when the Legislature mandated the
rollback of property taxes in FY2008, and again when the approval of Amendment 1 reduced the tax roll
for FY2009. Faced with an additional 11% reduction in property values and declining revenues for
FY2010, the County’s Outcome Based Budget process ensures that attention is focused on minimizing
the impact on the highest priority services.
Broward County’s Outcome Based Budgeting approach builds on the concepts described in
Osborne and Hutchinson’s book The Price of Government. The principal idea is that taxpayers pay a
price for the services provided. Just as a buyer seeks the best price for the goods or services to be
purchased, so too should the County provide the services that the citizens of Broward want, at the best
possible “price”.

The fundamentals of Outcome Based Budgeting are:

 Zero-Based means that no program, and no expense, is to be taken for granted. Starting
at “zero”, each is carefully scrutinized against the program goals the Board of County
Commissioners has established as key priorities. Is the program a goal of the
Commission? How much funding should be allocated, if any? Do the benefits and results
justify the cost? Could expenditures be reduced while still achieving a desired level of
service? Are users of programs paying an appropriate proportion of the cost of providing
this service or should fees be increased?
 Performance Based means that each program is evaluated based on the performance it
delivers, not the activities it conducts.
 Outcome Driven means that budget decisions are based on data showing the end result
of the service provided. Is it the intended outcome? How efficient is the process or
program that produces the outcome? Do the results justify continuing the program and the

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BROWARD COUNTY BUDGET-IN-BRIEF

amount of funds to be budgeted, or is there a better way? Are there duplicative services
being provided by County or outside organizations public and private?

Evaluation of program results during the Outcome Budgeting process was based on the vision
areas and goals established by the Board of County Commissioners. Results Teams were organized
around these vision areas. The teams were comprised of staff from County departments that deliver
services in the team’s vision area. Staff from agencies that are not involved in the vision area were on the
team to represent an “outside” perspective. Teams were led by staff from the County Administrator’s
Office and Department Directors, and each team included representation from the Office of Management
and Budget.
The Teams were tasked with developing options for reducing budgets for their respective program
areas by 20% with the least impact on outcomes and services. The Teams analyzed the options
proposed by agencies to develop their Team’s reduction recommendations. To evaluate efficiency,
agencies provided benchmarked efficiency measures to compare the County’s cost to achieve a
particular result with costs for other comparable jurisdictions. Agencies also provided the data necessary
for the Teams to do traditional budget analysis such as review of historical spending data, and the impact
of eliminating vacant positions to ensure every dollar budgeted is necessary to achieve the intended
results. To evaluate effectiveness, agencies reviewed outcome and client benefit measures and
benchmarking data when available. The Team’s reduction recommendations ranged from reductions in
expenses with minimal impact to significant service level reductions. Once the Teams completed their
recommendations, these options were presented to the County Commission at budget workshops.
The final pre-budget workshop provided the County Administrator policy direction on the level of
property taxes to certify to the Property Appraiser’s office. The County Commission will hold one more
workshop in August prior to the two public hearings in September required to adopt the budget and tax
rates. Major operating budgets and capital programs that are not property tax-supported will be reviewed
at this workshop.

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BROWARD COUNTY BUDGET-IN-BRIEF

Overview of Fiscal Year 2010 Budget

The County provides many services with its funds, which staff has categorized into four broad
service areas. Regional services are those that the County provides countywide. Contract regional
services include those that the County Commission has determined to be available to all County residents
by contract such as Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO) road patrol, and building and permitting services.
Municipal services are those that the County provides to the unincorporated area only that will be
provided by a City once the areas are annexed into cities. When all of the unincorporated area is
annexed, the County will no longer be providing these services. The final category is internal services
which include the support services that the County must provide to itself to do business.
The chart on the next page shows all the county services under the four categories that have been
described:

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BROWARD COUNTY BUDGET-IN-BRIEF

Contract Regional
Regional Services Municipal Services Internal Services
Services*
Airport Road Patrol Code Enforcement Accounting
Animal Care & Regulation Building Code Services Garbage Collection Audit Services
Auto Tag Licensing Fire Rescue Municipal- Lot Clearing Collection & Investment of
Civil Rights Protection Level Services* Neighborhood Parks Revenues
Collection of Taxes Aquatic Weed Control Neighborhood Planning Comprehensive Planning
Consumer Affairs Neighborhood Roads County Administration
Contractor Licensing School Crossing Guards Equal Opportunity
Convention Center Zoning Code Services Facility Construction/Facilities
Cultural Programs Maintenance
Detention/Corrections Fleet Services
Economic Development Human Resources
Elections Administration Information Technology
Emergency Management Intergovernmental Relations
Environmental Protection Internal Investigations
Health Care Legal Services
Housing Programs Management & Budget
Homeless Programs Phone Services
Human Services Purchasing
Land Use Planning & Development Records Storage
Management Radio Maintenance
Law Enforcement, Specialized Risk Management
Services
Libraries
Medical Examiner Services
Mosquito Control
Nuisance Abatement
Plat Review * Contract regional services are funded by contractual payments
Port from the cities

Property Assessment
Recording Official & Public
Records Documents
Redevelopment
Regional Communications
Regional Parks
Road Construction and Maintenance
(County roads only)
Small Business Opportunity Services
Solid Waste/Resource Recovery
Tourism Development
Traffic Engineering
Transit
Transportation Planning
Trauma Mgmt Services
Value Adjustment Board
Water Management

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BROWARD COUNTY BUDGET-IN-BRIEF

Another way to view the budget is to categorize the expenses according to the type of expense,
i.e., operating budget, capital budget or debt service budget. The following chart illustrates where the
resources are allocated:

Operating
73%

Debt Service
Capital
12%
15%

The Operating Budget includes the ongoing activities of the County government – from
enterprise operations, which are totally user fee supported, to special purpose operations, which are user
fee and grant supported; to general purpose operations, which are supported by a mixture of user fees,
assessments, ad valorem taxes, and other revenues.
The Capital Budget includes all major construction projects funded by a variety of funding
sources. The most significant revenues are taxes, bond and loan proceeds, grants, user fees, and fund
balances.
The Debt Service Budget provides for payment of principal and interest on revenue and general
obligation (voted) bonds and the required reserves.
The following graphs provide an overview of the major activities funded in the operating, capital
and debt service budgets:

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BROWARD COUNTY BUDGET-IN-BRIEF

Operating (Millions)

Reserves & Non-Departmental $258.3

Boards & Agencies $59.9

Transportation $131.6

Public Works $351.0

Port Everglades $97.0

Human Services $138.0

Finance $266.8

Envir Protect & Growth Mgmt $41.9

Community Services $108.0

Aviation $180.9

Elected/Judicial $786.5

County Admin/Commission $26.6

$0 $100 $200 $300 $400 $500 $600 $700 $800

Debt Service (Millions)

Gas Tax Bond $5.8

Solid Waste/Resource Recovery $11.4

Non-Ad Valorem $50.6

Port Everglades $42.6

Water/Waste Water $60.1

Convention Center $9.6

Aviation $137.9

Civic Arena $19.2

General Obligation $73.3

$0 $20 $40 $60 $80 $100 $120 $140 $160

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BROWARD COUNTY BUDGET-IN-BRIEF

Capital (Millions)

Human Services $7.6

Public Safety $12.0

General Government Facilities and Equipment $28.5

Unincorporated Neighborhood Improvements $12.0

Recreation, Tourism and Environmental $23.2

Port Everglades $72.2

Water & Wastewater and Waste & Recycling $42.7

Transportation $83.2

Aviation $151.7

$0.0 $25.0 $50.0 $75.0 $100.0 $125.0 $150.0 $175.0

To understand the County Budget, it is necessary to view it from the perspective of both Revenues
and Appropriations. The next two sections describe how the budget is supported by Revenues and the
major changes to Appropriations from fiscal year 2009 to fiscal year 2010.

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