City of St. Helens Receives Distinguished Budget Award for 2025/26

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 25, 2025

St. Helens, Ore. - The City of St. Helens has received a Distinguished Budget Presentation Award from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) for the City's Fiscal Year (FY) 2025-26 budget.

To receive the budget award, the City of St. Helens was required to satisfy nationally recognized guidelines for an effective budget presentation. The guidelines are designed to assess how well an entity's budget serves as a policy document, a financial plan, an operations guide, and a communications device.

Budget documents must be rated proficient in all four categories, and in the 14 mandatory criteria within those categories, to receive the award.

"It's always an honor to receive this award, and we worked especially hard this year to ensure that we received high marks in all the scoring guidelines," said St. Helens Finance Director Gloria Butsch.

There are three reviewers assigned by GFOA to review a budget document, and each reviewer scores the document based on the set guidelines. This year, the City of St. Helens received outstanding scores for exceeding the criteria in the areas of budget overview, budget process, long-range financial plans, performance measures, understandability and usability, and overall communications device.

When a Distinguished Budget Presentation Award is granted to an entity, a Certificate of Recognition for Budget Presentation is also presented to the individual(s) or department designated as being primarily responsible for having achieved the award. For the City of St. Helens, this award has been presented to the City's Finance Division.

"Though the award recognition goes to the Finance Division, it really is a team effort across all departments," said Butsch. "This year we focused on any previously noted deficiencies in the scoring criteria, and we improved our reporting in performance measures, linking strategic goals to department budgets, and strengthening the communication of the capital improvement plan."

There are over 1,700 participants in GFOA's Budget Awards Program. The most recent Budget Award recipients, along with their corresponding budget documents, are posted quarterly on GFOA's website, www.gfoa.org . Award recipients have pioneered efforts to improve the quality of budgeting and provide an excellent example for other governments throughout North America.

Government Finance Officers Association advances excellence in government finance by providing best practices, professional development, resources, and practical research for more than 22,500 members and the communities they serve.

###

For further information regarding the City of St. Helens budget award, please contact Communications Officer Crystal King at [email protected] .