Flower Mound Has Won the Same Budget Transparency Award 34 Years in a Row

If you bought a house here in the early 1990s, the town's finance office was already doing this. It hasn't stopped since.

For the budget that began October 1, 2025, the Government Finance Officers Association handed Flower Mound its Distinguished Budget Presentation Award — the 34th consecutive time the town has taken it home. Not a typo. Thirty-four in a row.

The GFOA established its Budget Award Program to push state and local governments toward budget documents of the highest quality. Winning isn't just about having a balanced ledger. Staff in Flower Mound's Budget & Strategy and Finance departments have to satisfy nationally recognized guidelines across four key categories — every year, starting from scratch. You don't keep it. You re-earn it.

So why does this matter if you're not in the finance department?

A sustained record of transparent, high-quality budget documents is part of the fiscal picture that supports strong credit ratings and long-term financial credibility. That kind of standing matters when towns borrow money for roads, parks, and infrastructure — and it has a way of working its way through to the tax rate over time.

The award is also about readability. The point of the award has always been that a budget document shouldn't require a finance degree to understand. Flower Mound has been meeting that standard since before Cross Timbers Road looked anything like it does today.

Starting in 2026, GFOA is expanding its criteria to include not just the budget document itself but websites, dashboards, and other forms of communication between a government and its residents. The bar is getting higher, and towns that want to keep their streak will need to keep up.

Nothing you need to do here. But if you've never actually looked at the town's budget, it's online, it's searchable, and it was designed to be read by people who aren't accountants.