Advancing Budget Equity

By the Office of Equity and Racial Justice  

Happy New Year! And with it comes a new tool for County staff as we continue on our collective journey to advance equity throughout the region.  

The Budget Equity Assessment Tool (BEAT) was approved by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Jan. 11, and will begin to be rolled out in the upcoming fiscal year budget cycle. It is a questionnaire that will be completed by each department annually as part of the budget process and was developed through the initial guidance provided by the Board in April 2021, a lot of research, and feedback from County staff and the public.  

Comprised of six questions in total, the BEAT will assist staff in evaluating new budget requests through an equity lens, with particular attention to the impacts to communities historically and currently suffering from inequalities and inequities, and to develop mitigation strategies for any negative unintended consequences of budgetary decisions. The tool also focuses on ensuring deep and intentional community engagement, and the use of disaggregated demographic data and data on lived experience to prioritize and develop criteria for resource distribution.  

Trainings for County staff on the use and application of the tool will kick off later this month. The Office of Equity and Racial Justice and the Office of Financial Planning will continue to work closely to provide ongoing support to staff as departments prepare to submit the first questionnaire responses as early as March 2022. Moving forward, our offices will continue working with departments through an iterative process to evaluate the relevance, applicability and impacts of the Budget Equity Assessment Tool to ensure its success.