Cook County Receives Distinguished Budget Presentation Award

The Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) awarded the Cook County Department of Budget and Management Services its Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for meeting the highest principles of governmental budgeting.

“Congratulations to the dedicated and hardworking budget department, which has earned this honor from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada,” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said. “Through their diligence and use of budgeting best practices, Cook County has created balanced and responsible budgets that are easily available online for residents.”  

In order to be eligible for the budget award, Cook County had to meet nationally-recognized guidelines for effective budget presentations. These benchmarks are designed to evaluate how well a government budget serves as a policy document, financial plan, operations guide and communications device.   

According to the GFOA, the budget award represents the highest form of recognition in governmental budgeting aimed at honoring recipients that have pioneered efforts to improve the quality of budgeting and set high standard for other governments throughout the country.

Since taking office, President Preckwinkle has eliminated budget gaps of $2.1 billion, reduced the direct operating taxpayer allocation to the Cook County Health and Hospitals System by $400 million and cut expenditures by $850 million.

Recently, responsible fiscal practices led to the administration’s smallest-ever preliminary gap. The administration made structural changes – instead of one-time fixes – in FY2018 to close a $316 million budget gap, including the elimination of more than 1,000 budgeted but vacant positions and about 200 layoffs. 

The current budget is available here.

The GFOA is a major professional association serving nearly 19,000 government finance professionals throughout North America.