A new budget year for Mecklenburg County began on July 1, 2012, and now the full funding plan that supports how the County will do its business is in book form and available online at http://countybudget.charmeck.org.

The Fiscal Year 2013 Adopted Budget Book is filled with graphics, charts, tables, text, lists and photos that break down the $1.43 billion budget into chunks of easy to navigate and understand information.

Only a small number of budget books were printed. Instead, the push by the County Manager's Office of Management and Budget is to be environmentally and cost conscious and direct people to view the online version. Visitors will find a digital copy of the full budget book broken down into tabbed sections with pages that can be turned just as with a hard copy version. Also, for ease of printing from the Web, the sections of the budget book are available as portable document files (pdf).

One new change for the book this year is how department information is reported. A section titled Departmental Pages includes all County departments and agencies listed alphabetically. Each department's information is grouped in one place. Previous books listed programs and services by one of the County's four Focus Areas: Community Health and Safety, Effective and Efficient Government, Social, Educational and Economic Opportunity and Sustainable Community.

Each department is linked to one or more of the Focus Areas, and that relationship is included in the respective department pages along with mission, responsibilities, funding adjustments and a list of services. Other tabbed sections include: County Government, Performance Results, Budget Overview, Budget Summaries, Financial Sources and Uses, Capital Improvement Program and an Appendix.

Mecklenburg County has consistently won the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award presented by the Government Finance Officers Association. The Office of Management and Budget recently submitted the FY2013 Adopted Budget Book for award consideration.