Mission Statement

The mission of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is to offer a broad-based, objective perspective on public and fiscal policy to the County Executive, County Council, and other County partners. The analytical work performed in OMB provides policymakers with data and options for informed decisions. The Office supports and enhances the effective operation of County government, ensuring funds are spent in the most fiscally prudent and socially responsible way. OMB also ensures that departmental expenditures are made in accordance with Executive polices and Council appropriations, consistent with the County Charter.

Budget Overview

The total approved FY19 Operating Budget for the Office of Management and Budget is $4,920,305, an increase of $189,374 or 4.00 percent from the FY18 Approved Budget of $4,730,931. Personnel Costs comprise 97.97 percent of the budget for 33 full-time position(s) and one part-time position(s), and a total of 33.25 FTEs. Total FTEs may include seasonal or temporary positions and may also reflect workforce charged to or from other departments or funds. Operating Expenses account for the remaining 2.03 percent of the FY19 budget.

Linkage to County Result Areas

While this program area supports all eight of the County Result Areas, the following is emphasized:

• A Responsive, Accountable County Government

Department Performance Measures

Performance measures for this department are included below (where applicable). The FY18 estimates reflect funding based on the FY18 approved budget. The FY19 and FY20 figures are performance targets based on the FY19 approved budget and funding for comparable service levels in FY20.

Accomplishments

• Developed options for CE decisions to close FY19 Budget gap of $208.8 million while preserving the County Executive and Council priorities.
• Provided solutions for closing the budget gap of $3.7 billion between FY08 and FY19 to produce balanced budgets while preserving critical services and advancing key County policies.
• Developed and implemented a $53.5 million Operating Budget and $9.3 million Capital Improvements Program (CIP) Budget Savings Plan to close the gap caused by FY18 revenue shortfalls.
• Rolled out the new CIP BASIS (OMB's Budget Analytical and Statistical Information System used for development and monitoring the CIP). This intuitive, scalable, and mobile-friendly application provides OMB and County departments with streamlined workflows, enhanced real-time reports and dashboards, prior year / version data archiving, and user management. CIP BASIS delivers comprehensive capital project management including funding, expenditures, appropriations, narratives, accounting, review packets, issue reporting, supplementals, transfers, funding switches, transaction logs, and user management.
• Provided analysis to the County Executive and County Council recommending General Obligation bond and other debt reductions as part of the County's CIP Spending Affordability Guidelines decision making process. These reductions moved the County towards a more sustainable debt level and contributed to AAA ratings from all three credit rating agencies.
• Oversee on-going cross-departmental working groups to ensure the most effective resource allocation in the following policy priorities: Positive Youth Development; Senior Programs and Services; Information Technology, including eDiscovery; Criminal Justice; and Pedestrian Safety-Vision Zero.
• Conducted comparative and other Program of Requirements (POR) analyses resulting in project and debt service efficiencies, programmatic improvements, and enhanced collaboration between co-locating agencies for projects included in the CIP.
• Continued outreach efforts to promote open data, government transparency, budgeting processes, and to solicit community input into the development of the Operating and Capital budgets. Information and training sessions were held to inform community members and not-for-profit organizations of the community grant application system; CIP and Operating budget forums were held in conjunction with the County Executive's Office and the five Regional Services Centers; budget overview sessions were presented to Leadership Montgomery's CORE Leadership class and Emerging Leaders programs, Montgomery County Taxpayers League, Greater Olney Civic Association and presented a session on local government budgeting for a budgeting and financial management class at American University; OMB representatives presented at the Maryland Association of Counties (MACo) Winter Conference, and met with representatives from Baltimore City and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina to promote BASIS and OpenBudget System. Budget presentations were conducted for visiting dignitaries from the People's Republic of China and the Philippines.

Initiatives

• Designing and developing Operating Budget Planning & Workforce Modules. These modules will replace the remaining Hyperion functionality for better data integrity, ease of use, and reduced server footprint and cost. The system is being developed in-house at no additional cost to the County. The new modules will be available for use in developing the FY20 Operating budget.

Innovations and Productivity Improvements

• Designed, developed, and implemented CIP BASIS. By completely replacing Oracle's Hyperion system, CIP BASIS significantly streamlined the CIP budget development process for end users. In addition, it improved OMB's internal operations resulting in reduced Comp Time hours earned, expedited the publication timeline by five days, improved accuracy in the data published online and in print, reduced printing costs, and freed up capacity on the Department of Technology Services (DTS) servers. In addition to the positive impact on OMB's Comp Time hours, it would be reasonable to assume user departments and the printshop would also experience a decline in work hours, including overtime and compensatory, related to budget development.
• Designed, developed, and implemented the public facing OpenBudget (Operating & Capital) systems, based on the output of the data, narratives, tables, and graphics directly from BASIS. This system completely replaced the Socrata Capital and Operating Budget Books, and budgetMontgomery application. This created another user-friendly tool to access data-Interactive Google Maps, ability to customize searches, and archived data. These changes also saved OMB over 300 hours of time previously required to update and maintain the Socrata sites.
  • Capital Budget at montgomerycountymd.gov/capitalbudget
  • Operating Budget at montgomerycountymd.gov/operatingbudget
• Redesigned OMB's public website for mobility, improved access to data and publications, and to serve as a central portal for all the County's budget activities. montgomerycountymd.gov/omb
• Enhanced Operating BASIS - Improvements include enhanced budget monitoring capabilities allowing OMB and departments to better track expenditure and revenue trends and projections; development of a savings plan module; and standardization of budget analysis and reporting.
• Launched eBudget 2.0 (OMB's Knowledge Management System), the redesigned site streamlined access, enhanced availability of content, and expanded mobility.

Collaboration and Partnerships

Program Descriptions

  Budget Preparation and Administration

Staff in the Budget Preparation and Administration program serve the County by preparing the County's Operating Budget, Public Services Program, Capital Budget, and Capital Improvement Program ensuring compliance with the County Charter and the decisions of elected officials. Fiscal projections prepared by OMB are used by County elected officials...