Budget in Brief Examples: 11 Real Ones Measured, and One Page

What is a budget in brief?

GFOA's best practice on making budgets easier to understand describes a budget in brief as a feature "that highlights major points from the budget document," and notes that governments frequently publish one as a supplement to the main budget. Its advice for any budget document applies doubly to the brief: limit detail to what conveys the key information, round dollars to thousands or millions, and let tables, charts and graphs carry the numbers so the words can explain them.

Who reads it:

• Residents who want to know what their taxes pay for.
• Reporters who need the totals and the changes, fast.
• Council, board and committee members who need the big picture before the hearings.
• Staff who answer the public's questions.

11 budget in brief examples, measured

We downloaded each PDF from the government's own website and counted its pages and words.

Three things stand out:

• None of the 11 is one page. The shortest is 7 pages. The median is 34 pages and 7,707 words.
• The longest are briefs in name only. Wisconsin's runs 167 pages and New Jersey's nearly 87,000 words; both are the governor's summary of the budget proposal, a different job from a resident's guide.
• Two cities print a booklet. Richmond and Cincinnati use half-letter pages, 5.5 by 8.5 inches, a size that folds into a handout.

Word counts are from the PDF text and include tables and chart labels.

What the best examples do well

Sacramento County: the plainest structure

Seven pages, in an order a resident can follow: where the money comes from, where the money goes, what a budget is, spending and major initiatives by group of departments, the budget calendar, who does what, fiscal issues, and how to get involved. Its opening line says what the brief is for: to show "where the money comes from and how the County plans to spend it."

Cincinnati and Richmond: a handout size

At half-letter, each page holds one idea. A booklet like this works at a public meeting or a library desk in a way a 120-page PDF cannot.

Cecil County: says what the brief is

Its first page says the brief is a financial summary of the operating and capital budgets, including "what it ultimately means in terms of services to our community." Naming the reader's question at the top is the habit worth copying.

Sacramento County again: names the hard part

Most briefs list priorities. Sacramento's last page also lists the problems: reserves below recommended levels, a budget balanced with over $100 million of one-time money, and a backlog of unfunded repairs. A brief that says what is hard is easier to trust.

A real budget in brief on one page

Here is Sacramento County's FY 2025-26 adopted brief, the shortest of the 11, cut to one page. Every figure is from the county's 7-page PDF, with its source page number.

Three choices made it fit:

• One number per idea. The source chart splits discretionary money into four more slices; the One-Pager keeps the four groups and one line for property tax, the number residents ask about.
• Priorities cut to three. The source lists more than twenty initiatives across five areas. The rest stay in the full document.
• The process and roles go. The calendar and the officials' roles are useful, but a link to the budget website covers them.

The layout: what one page looks like

A one-page budget in brief needs the same parts as any budget summary: the total and its change, sources, uses, a short table and one sentence on what changed.

Edit this template

A sample school district's budget on one page: the total and its change, three budget types, two charts and a table.

What to change for a budget in brief:

• Add where the money comes from. Residents ask about taxes before spending.
• Add one line on what it means for a household, if you can state it from the budget: the tax rate, or the bill on a typical home.
• Replace the table with priorities if the audience is residents rather than a board.
• End with how to get involved: hearing dates, the website, who to contact.

Open it: annual budget summary template.

A free budget in brief template

How to write a budget in brief in 6 steps

1. Start from the adopted or proposed totals, and say which it is.
2. Round to millions and check that the parts add up to the total you show.
3. Pick one chart for sources and one for uses. Five slices or fewer each.
4. Write the "what changed" sentence first, then the rest.
5. Name what is hard. One line each on reserves, one-time money and risks.
6. Trace every number to its page in the full budget before you publish.

Have a long budget to boil down? Paste the summary tables into the free AI One-Pager generator to get a first layout, then check every number against the budget document yourself.

Budget in brief mistakes

Make your budget in brief

Start from the template table above, take your numbers from the adopted or proposed budget, and cut until it fits one page. To lay it out, open the free annual budget summary template, add where the money comes from, and end with how residents can get involved.