Through its legislative authority, the City Council this year approved the transition from an annual to a biennial (two-year) budget process for Marysville as a way to provide better long-range and strategic planning.

Marysville is following a trend among cities toward creating two-year plans as an alternative to the annual budget cycle. Currently, 35 municipalities in Washington use biennial budgeting, and more cities are looking at adopting a two-year budget cycle in light of the Great Recession and its impacts wrought on local governments.

The first biennial budget would be 2015-2016. If you’re a city budget hawk, you won’t notice much change in the schedule. The biennial budget development process runs about a month ahead of the annual process.

In fact, the budget process is already under way with management meeting with directors to review departmental budgets and new budget requests. These first steps guide us toward review by citizens, a public hearing, and passage by the council in November.

A key advantage of a two-year plan is it will help policymakers focus on long-term and strategic aspects of budgeting. A biennial budget is also a better complement to the city’s long-term strategic plan now in the development phase, the Capital Improvement Plan and other long-term planning tools.

Another benefit will be in the amount of staff time saved in preparing the budget. Biennial budgeting will give city officials and budget planners an opportunity to streamline government services through better long-range and strategic financial planning, provide a longer perspective on program planning, and consolidate effort invested in the budget creation and approval process.

In recent years, Marysville city government has taken a more strategic planning and long-term forecasting approach to the way we put taxpayer dollars to work for essential needs like public safety, road maintenance and infrastructure, parks and recreation, contracted fire and emergency services, and other day-to-day government operations.

A two-year budgeting process will help us lock in the practice of disciplined fiscal stewardship. It makes better sense from that perspective, and the staff time that we will save preparing budgets can be used to focus on strategic planning.

We recognize that some flexibility is needed in various aspects of the two-year budget development process. Be assured that the City Council, Finance staff, Chief Administrative Officer and I will be as vigilant, accountable and transparent in the off-year as in the on-year budget process. The Finance Committee, which includes three council members, the CAO, Finance Director, and myself will continue to meet monthly, and I will keep my regular meetings with our Finance Director and all department heads in place to review finances and all key aspects of each department.

I should also point out that the biennial budget process allows for the council to make adjustments in the off year, as needed. For example, if an unforeseen economic event impacted our region, we would still have the flexibility to make revisions to the budget. Likewise, if unanticipated additional revenue becomes available in the “off year” my administration and the council would be able to go to citizens to hear your needs, and address them in a timely way.

The budget process includes a mid-biennial review with the ability to adjust appropriations that reflect changes in financial conditions, programs or changes in laws that impact ongoing expenditures. During the first year of the biennium, 2015, budget monitoring and reporting will be done by comparing actual expenditures to the first year’s spending plan.

The city general fund budget for 2014 is $42.1 million, with finances improving and stable due to fiscal discipline, long-range planning, a conservative budget approach, and responsible departmental spending.

One area where annual and biennial budgets do not differ is the importance of input from citizens.

I hope in the coming weeks leading up to the budget public hearing and council adoption of the city’s first-ever biennial budget in November, you will take the opportunity to share with the council and me the priorities and community values that are most important to you.

John Nehring is the mayor of Marysville.