In an effort to increase transparency in government and produce a financial document that is also reader friendly, City of Aiken City Manager, John Klimm, created a team of employees and consultants to update the for-matting of the city budget, which had remained unchanged since 1955. Once the proposed budget was passed by City Council in July of 2016, it was published on the City of Aiken website, where it can be accessed by the public.
The budget was submitted for review by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) and received the prestigious Distinguished Budget Presentation Award, meeting national guidelines and satisfying the mandatory criteria in categories such as financial planning, policy, operations and communication. This is the first time the City of Aiken has received this particular award, although certificates of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting have been received from the GFOA for the last 24 consecutive years.
Aiken was one of only 10 cities in the state of South Carolina to receive the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award, which is an honor that has been earned by less than four percent of SC munic-ipalities and less than two percent of all local governments in the country.
The City of Aiken’s budget for fiscal year 2016-2017, is available for viewing online at www.CityofAikenSC.gov , making it simple for residents to see their tax dollars at work.
