The City Council has been considering replacing its annual budget planning with a two-year budget process. At the June 8 meeting, Finance Director Deborah Booher presented the pros and cons of the a two-year, or biennial, budget planning process.

Afterwards, there was a great deal of back-and-forth discussion by council members. Ultimately, the Financial Department staff’s support for the change may have been what carried the day. Two points in particular led the Finance Department to recommend going to a biennial budget, despite the initial extra work the department will have to do to initially set it up.

First, departments will only have to prepare their budgets once every two years. A good deal of the time spent during budget planning involves filling out regulatory boilerplate and preparing support materials justifying budget requests.

Second, a two-year budget helps clarify what’s really important to keep if or when there is another economic downturn, and what are the ongoing costs. The strategic planning involved in preparing a two-year budget makes it easier to understand the long-term consequences of cutting back, or eliminating, projects.

The city’s first biennial budget will be from June 2017 to May 2019.