GFOA established the Distinguished Budget Presentation Awards Program (Budget Awards Program) in 1984 to encourage and assist state and local governments to prepare budget documents of the very highest quality that reflect both the guidelines established by the National Advisory Council on State and Local Budgeting and the GFOA's best practices on budgeting and then to recognize individual governments that succeed in achieving that goal. Documents submitted to the Budget Awards Program are reviewed by selected members of the GFOA professional staff and by outside reviewers with experience in public-sector budgeting.

The City has received this award for the Fiscal Year 2019 Budget, and is the third such award the City has received.

In order to receive this award, a local government's budget is judged on 27 criteria, and 14 mandatory elements.

There were 38,799 general purpose governments, and another 51,296 special districts in 2017, yet only 1,579 of these awards were granted. In Florida specifically, 154 of these awards were given, for 1,712 government units in Florida.