Budgets are inherently policy documents, even if the policies are not explicitly presented in the budget. The GFOA Distinguished Budget Presentation Awards Program (GFOA 2006) begins budget evaluations with a review of five criteria regarding the degree to which budget documents present city policies that are fundamental to the budget. A fundamental tenet of local government budgeting is that budgets exist to fund the programs that implement the policies of the governing body. There would be no need for a local government budget if there were no policies to be implemented by staff (and there would be no need for a staff). The critical question is how well the budget document and budget process are used to explicitly review the policies that the governing body has established, and how well department directors effect those policies during budget execution.