Maui Gets National Award for 2012 Budget

Budget Chair Joe Pontanilla (seated left) accepts a copy of last year’s proposed budget from Mayor Alan Arakawa (standing right). File photo by Wendy Osher.

By Wendy Osher

The County of Maui is the recipient of a distinguished budget presentation award for the 2012 Maui budget document.

In order to receive the award, recipients had to satisfy nationally recognized guidelines for effective budget presentation.

The award was issued by the non-profit Government Finance Officers Association, which evaluated documents based on policy, financial plan, operations, and communication.

The program is the only national awards program in governmental budgeting.

In announcing the award officials said, “Award recipients have pioneered efforts to improve the quality of budgeting and provide an excellent example for other governments throughout North America.”

When a Distinguished Budget Presentation award is granted, a Certificate of Recognition for Budget Presentation is also presented to the individual or department designated as being primarily responsible for its having achieved the award. In this case, the award was presented to Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa and Budget Director Sandy Baz.

The mayor’s administration is currently conducting a series of budget hearings in communities across the county to gather public input.  The next meeting takes place tonight in Central Maui at the Velma McWayne Santos Community Center.

There are also meetings planned on the outer islands of Molokai on Wednesday, October 17 at the Mitchell Pauole Center, and on Lanai on Tuesday, October 23 at Lanai Senior Center. Both meetings begin at 5:45 p.m.

Input from the community meetings will be taken into consideration when the administration constructs the fiscal year 2013-2014 budget.