You are a government accountant for a large municipality, and you have recently been assigned to the budget office and charged with building a better budget document—one that will be of the highest quality so that citizens and others with an interest in the government’s finances will be fully informed.

Required
a. Find out which other local governments in your state have received the GFOA’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Award.

b. Under the Introduction and Overview section of Illustration 12–1, note that the GFOA requires both a budget message that articulates priorities and issues for the upcoming year and an overview of significant budgetary items and trends within the budget document. To obtain ideas for budget improvement, examine budgets from two of the local governments in your state. (1) What are the key budgetary priorities and issues for each government? (2) Compare the budgetary trends described in the two budgets. How are the trends similar or different?
c. Under the Document-wide Criteria section of Illustration 12–1, guidelines recommend charts, graphs, and narratives to convey financial information. Using the two budgets from part b, identify what you believe to be the most unique or interesting graphical presentation found within either of the budgets and discuss how it helped convey financial information to you, the reader.