FY 2024 Digital Budget Book

Welcome to the Town of Duxbury's first digital budget book. In fact, this is the first budget book for Duxbury in any media. With the purchase of ClearGov software back in November of 2021, my office has invested resources in automating and streamlining the budget process. There is a wealth of information that can be contained within these digital pages but we are mindful that we are still in the learning process and therefore, have only begun to tap into the abilities that this software can provide us. 

With this new tool also comes new challenges. Since data comes directly from the towns' financial software, some things don't always translate well to the general public. Take, for instance, the towns' regional dispatch center. Once reported on as a town department with its own revenue source, it will now be reported on as an Enterprise Fund. Historical data does not translate well without going back and changing the setup of  that data. Since we can't go back and change past years' financial data, it is the job of the Finance Department to identify these inconsistencies and explain how they impact the data. 

Also of note is that the budget book data compares all FY 2024 budget with the adopted budget, while in the executive summary and elsewhere we are making comparisons to the amended budget. The major difference between the two is the allocation of Article #4 personal non-union merit adjustments to their respective departments and a total of $188,012. While this is a simple fix going forward in future presentations, it is not something that can be changed at this late date in the process.

I hope that this document will aid the understanding of the Town's FY 2024 budget and the process to get here. I welcome your comments and suggestions as we work to improve this document in the coming years.  Town of Duxbury - FY 2024 Digital Budget Book

Sincerely,

John Q. Adams

Finance Director