Abhi Nemani, Senior VP of Product Strategy
Abhi is a government technology entrepreneur, scholar and public servant with over 15 years of experience building and leading public and private sector organizations driving innovation. Currently, Abhi Nemani is the Senior Vice President of product strategy at Euna Solutions, a leading provider of purpose-built, cloud-based solutions for the public sector.
Public budgeting is more than just allocating funds; it’s about making decisions that align with community values and needs. As someone who’s worked in the budget office, I’ve seen the challenges of matching funding to priorities firsthand. The recent CivicPulse report, “Achieving Community Alignment in California Local Government,” underscores a familiar issue: residents prioritize healthcare, affordable housing, and public safety, but local budgets often tell a different story. This gap isn’t just about resources; it reflects systemic flaws in traditional budgeting practices that struggle to adapt to evolving community needs. Euna Solutions’ Strategic Budgeting capabilities offer a path forward, helping local governments realign their budgets with community priorities through a more data-driven, transparent, and inclusive approach.
The Challenge of Aligning Budgets with Community Priorities
According to the CivicPulse report, while 88% of residents view accessible healthcare as a top priority, only 62% of local officials rank it as similar importance, highlighting a significant gap in perception. Similarly, affordable housing is a major concern for residents but ranks much lower among officials’ priorities. These misalignments are not isolated incidents—they represent broader challenges in how local governments allocate resources. Traditional budgeting practices, which rely on incremental adjustments from previous years, often fail to address current community needs. A study by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) found that nearly 60% of local governments still use this outdated approach, leading to a disconnect between strategic goals and actual spending.
Euna’s Strategic Budgeting platform addresses this issue by directly linking financial decisions to strategic plans, ensuring that budgets are aligned with what the community values most. By integrating real-time data into the budgeting process, local governments can break free from the inertia of past spending patterns and make decisions that reflect current priorities.
Transparency and Accountability: Building Trust Through Data
Transparency is essential for building public trust, yet the CivicPulse report shows that only 30% of residents feel that local government is transparent about how budget decisions are made. This lack of visibility breeds distrust and disengagement, making it harder for governments to build support for their initiatives. Nationally, Pew Research Center data echoes this sentiment, with just 20% of Americans expressing confidence in their local government’s spending decisions.
Euna’s Strategic Budgeting enhances transparency by providing detailed, accessible reports that clearly link spending to specific community goals. For example, if a city allocates funds to improve healthcare services, residents can easily see how that money is being used, what outcomes are expected, and how those efforts align with broader strategic objectives. This kind of transparency isn’t just about compliance; it’s about fostering a sense of shared purpose and accountability between governments and the people they serve.
Engaging Marginalized Voices: Toward More Inclusive Budgeting
The CivicPulse report highlights that misalignments in budgeting disproportionately affect marginalized groups, including women, younger residents, and communities of color. For instance, women and younger residents consistently rated healthcare, education, and affordable housing as higher priorities compared to their elected officials, reflecting a significant gap in representation. Addressing this requires more than just data; it requires engagement tools that actively involve all voices in the budgeting process.
Euna’s partnership with Polco and its Balancing Act tool exemplifies this shift toward a more inclusive approach. Balancing Act allows residents to participate in interactive budget simulations, helping them understand the trade-offs involved in funding decisions while providing direct feedback to officials. This hands-on engagement doesn’t just educate—it empowers, ensuring that community input shapes the final budget. According to the National League of Cities, cities using participatory budgeting tools report higher levels of civic engagement and improved trust in local government, particularly among historically marginalized communities.
Strategic Planning Meets Practical Execution
Strategic planning often falters when it comes to execution, especially when budgets don’t reflect the realities of community needs. Euna’s partnership with Funkhouser & Associates bridges this gap by combining expert consulting with advanced budgeting technology. Funkhouser’s strategic planning insights help governments set clear, data-driven goals, while Euna’s tools ensure these plans are backed by actionable, transparent funding decisions.
For example, when a city aims to improve economic development, it’s not enough to set the goal; the plan must include precise, funded actions that lead to measurable outcomes. Funkhouser works with local governments to identify high-impact investments, and Euna’s software ensures these initiatives are properly funded and tracked. This kind of integrated approach transforms strategic priorities from aspirational to achievable, ensuring that every dollar is put to its best use.
Adapting to Changing Needs: The Role of Data-Driven Decision Making
One of the greatest challenges in public budgeting is adapting to rapidly changing community needs. The CivicPulse report illustrates this with findings that show residents’ priorities can shift quickly, often in response to economic, social, or environmental changes. Traditional budgeting processes, which are slow to adapt, can leave governments struggling to keep pace. Euna’s Strategic Budgeting platform offers a solution by incorporating scenario planning and predictive analytics, allowing governments to anticipate challenges and adjust their budgets in real time.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, cities with robust data-driven budgeting systems were better equipped to reallocate funds quickly, providing critical support for healthcare, small businesses, and emergency response. This flexibility is not just a nice-to-have; it’s a necessity for maintaining alignment between government actions and community needs, particularly in times of crisis.
Rethinking Public Budgeting: A New Path Forward
Rethinking public budgeting requires a shift in mindset—from viewing budgeting as a static, annual exercise to seeing it as a dynamic, strategic process that evolves with the community. The findings from the CivicPulse report, along with insights from ICMA, Pew, and the National League of Cities, underscore the need for local governments to move away from reactive, historical budgeting practices and embrace a more responsive, inclusive approach.
Euna’s Strategic Budgeting, combined with partnerships like those with Polco and Funkhouser & Associates, offers a new model for public finance—one that is data-driven, transparent, and centered on the community. By making budgeting a strategic tool that reflects community priorities, local governments can build trust, foster engagement, and ensure that every decision and every dollar truly counts.
To learn more about Euna Budget: Strategic Budgeting, click here.
