Mesa County is one of the first government organizations of its size to use the new 'Budgeting for Outcomes' process for creating its annual budget. Other (mostly larger) organizations that have used this process were in a very different kind of financial situation than Mesa County is currently in. Their revenues were down significantly, causing a financial crisis where major cuts needed to be made, regardless of which budgeting process they used.
Our revenues are up in Mesa County but the demands for our services are growing faster than we can keep up. Therefore, our main focus in Budgeting for Outcomes will not be on cutting. It will be on prioritizing our spending to focus our limited resources on the programs/services that achieve the best outcomes for citizens. That could result in some services or programs not being selected, but if departments do a good job of explaining why they do what they do and how their programs provide the desired results they will have made a good offer. The idea is to take those offers and make good, informed decisions about what to purchase.
Requests for Results identify the desired outcome, the factors that contribute to an outcome, the strategies that will influence the outcome, and indicators that will determine the progress toward the outcome.
A proposal by a Seller in response to a Request for Results indicating what they will do to produce the result, how much it will cost and how success will be measured