Sugar Land launched a new digital budget simulator to give residents a chance to tell the city how they would organize Sugar Land’s budget based on priorities they value most. 

Sugar Land is a leader in financial management, providing taxpayers with exceptional value, confidence and transparency. The new digital budget simulator tool takes that transparency to the next level by showing how much it costs resident-facing departments to provide services and how a department’s budget impacts the level of services the city can provide. While this is only a partial look at the city’s general fund, it gives residents a great idea of what it takes to balance the city’s wallet.

Residents will be able to “influence” the city’s budget and adjust budget lines for things like the Office of Emergency Management, Public Works and Parks and Recreation by decreasing or increasing department budgets by 5 or 10 percent while also learning about the service-level impacts that result from those increases and decreases. 

Users also have the option to maintain the current budget and service levels.

This simulator is purely for educational purposes and is not being used to influence budget decisions in the real world. The data gathered from the new tool will ultimately be used alongside other data points to allow the city’s budget department to fully gauge resident priorities.

For more information, visit www.sugarlandtx.gov/BudgetInfluencer.