During the February 21, 2017, Hinton Town Council Regular Meeting (video available here) Council voted to accept Budget 2017. Budget 2017 is a balanced budget, with no increase to the total amount of property tax collected. 

Since election in 2013, Council has strode to embody the principles of open, transparent governance. As such, citizen engagement in the budget process has been a priority. This budget saw a wide variety of engagement tools used in tandem to garner as much input from citizens as possible. 

During 2016, Administration worked with Ipsos to complete a Citizen Satisfaction Survey. The results were integral to the early creation of the budget, ensuring that the priorities and values shown in the statistically representative report were taken into account from the very beginning. These results were also integral to the creation of the Citizen Budget Simulation Tool. 

We've posted the results of the survey to our website, click here to learn more.

Citizen Budget Engagement Tool
This new tool, launched in January of 2017, represents a new way for residents to be presented with a visual representation of budget spending for their unique appraised value, and a new way for residents to provide feedback, all in one.  Mayor Rob Mackin and members of administration visited local schools, using the tool as both a way to encourage youth feedback and to help teach the value of tax dollars and how said dollars are used. 

We've posted the results of the tool to our website, click here to learn more.

Traditional Engagement Methods
Every budget process involves requests for feedback; our traditional methods of columns, open houses, letters, emails, phone calls, and in person conversation were all taken into account for Budget 2017.