ABSTRACT
Avon is a town of about 18,000 on the Farmington River in central Connecticut. The elected five-member Town Council appoints the town’s manager. The town has won an award for distinguished budget presentation from the Government Finance Officers Association every year since 1984. Annual spending by Avon, including the town, Board of Education, sewers, capital improvements, and debt service has totaled around $90 million. The budget process in Avon incorporates many layers of review and approval, as well as opportunity for citizen control and input. Avon’s budget offers citizens a variety of measures of how well the community and its government performs. Typical of local budgets in the United States, the bulk of spending in Avon goes to schools. The budget for 2018–2019 shows that education accounts for 64 percent of total spending. Information helpful in evaluating performance is often distributed throughout budgets.
