Does the budget include forecasts for future years, and/or data for prior years?

Topic: Local Government Budgeting
Textbook for references: Public Budgeting Systems by Robert D. Lee Jr., Ronald W. Johnson, Philip G. Joyce – – – – Book attached pdf version.

Need to know which city’s local government you are choosing to research by Sept. 16th.

Required in-text references: 5 or more, can be from the book or elsewhere.

Paper should include 2 tables ( 1 table is provided here, the other needs to be created)

Attached is a sample paper of this assignment for reference. Please try to follow the guidelines and paper design to avoid confusion.

Instructions:

Each student will analyze the budget
and budgetary trends for a local government (city or county government).
The paper will be formatted as follows:
Overview and budget process and format
Expenditure and revenue trends
Conclusion and Recommendation
Below are the components of the project:
Selection of government ( need this by Sept. 16)
Draft of the first section (overview and budget process/format section)
Draft of the second section (expenditure and revenue trends section)
Final Paper (conclusions and recommendations)
The primary source of data will be the
budget of the government that you are analyzing. You may be able to get
copies of these from the government. Many governments now also have
budget documents posted on their Web site.

You may also want to review
Census data for socio-demographic information about the area. Finally,
you might search newspaper indexes to find information on major recent
budget issues.

There is no “cookie-cutter” approach
to this project. Each government is different, so the focus of the
analyses will vary somewhat.

The following sections are intended to
provide guidelines for you to consider, but your paper may be quite
different from this. You are expected to organize the report in the
manner best suited to the entity you are studying.

Overview and Budget Process/Format
The paper should be written as if you
were briefing a new budget director for this government.

The new
director is moving here from another part of the country, and knows very
little about the area or the budget issues. This section should first
include a brief overview of the state or locality, including
factors/trends that may affect the budget (e.g., location, population,
income levels, primary types of employment, etc.)

This section should also address the budget process and the format of the budget. You may include the following, for example:
Is the budget annual or biannual?
What is the fiscal year?
Brief description of the process
Form of government (e.g., a city could be operated by a council-manager, mayor-council, or commission form)
Elected officials (number and term of legislators, executive)
Do citizens appear to play any role in the budget process?
What budget format is used?
Does the executive (e.g., Mayor or Governor) have veto authority?
Does the budget include performance
information? If so, does it appear to be primarily related to
workload/activities, or results/outcomes?
Does the budget include forecasts for future years, and/or data for prior years?
To what extent do you find the budget document to be a readable communication tool?
What type of budget information, if any, is included on the government’s web site?

Expenditure and Revenue Trends
This section will analyze major
sources of expenditures and revenues, as well as trends over time.

For
trends, use the most current budget year available as well as one prior
year (most budgets will include data for at least one or two prior
years; it will probably be most interesting to use the oldest year and
the most recent year for comparison).

For the “older” comparison year,
you can use either actual or budgeted revenues and expenditures.

Use tables or graphs to help display
key information. You should have at least one table for expenditures and
one table for revenues, using the same format as the first homework
assignment.

Some jurisdictions may have a large number of departments
and/or revenue sources, so it may be helpful to aggregate some data in
your tables (for example, in an expenditure table, you could list the
largest departments, then combine the other departments into an “other”
category).

You may want to show the breakdown of expenditures in
different ways, such as the example in Table 1 (below)

Following are the major questions you should answer regarding expenditures:
What is the total expenditure budget?
It is often helpful to relate this to
something else to give the reader some perspective – e.g., how much is
this per capita (total budget divided by population)?
Where does the money go?
Which are the largest departments/activities?
Which are the largest funds? (this will require breaking down the total budget by fund).
What are the major sources of growth or decline over this period?
If the budget has increased by $10
million over the past two years, you should be able to explain where
most of the increased expenditures have occurred (your tables will tell
you which areas have experienced the most change; the message at the
beginning of the budget, or detailed discussion within the budget
document, may help explain the reasons for the change).
These are the general questions regarding the revenue structure and trends:
Where does the money come from?
What are the primary sources of revenue? (e.g., property tax, sales tax, etc.)
See the note above about aggregating revenue sources in the table if necessary
How much have total revenues changed over this period?
Which revenue sources have
experienced the most change over this period? To the extent possible,
attempt to explain why the changes occurred.
For major tax sources, try to provide
detail on the tax rates, and any pertinent changes in the tax base or
rate over the period studied.
Conclusion and Recommendation
This section should draw conclusions
about the overall fiscal health and future outlook for this government,
based on your analysis. Do they appear to be in good shape? Is there
structural balance between revenues and expenditures? If they are
experiencing fiscal stress, how have they responded to it (e.g., service
level reductions, increased tax rates and/or user fees, etc.)? What are
the major issues facing this organization in the near future? What
effects has the recession had, and/or what difficulties might it present
soon? What are the key things the new budget director needs to know?

General Notes for the Analysis
In your analysis, start with the
numbers. Prepare the tables before you begin writing the narrative about
revenue and expenditure trends. The text should follow from the tables.
Look at the BIG PICTURE! Do not spend time discussing a change in a department that is only 1% of the budget.
Document what you say with supporting
numbers. For example, do NOT say, “the budget has grown a lot,” DO say,
“the budget has grown 5% over this period.”
Do not force the reader to look at
and interpret the tables and charts. You need to tell the reader the key
points from the table. One way to do this is to pretend that you will
not be including the table in the paper, so you have to write as if it
will not be there. The tables are there only as additional information,
to support your statements and analysis.
Label and title your tables and charts.
Include totals in your tables.
Think about what the numbers show. Do
your conclusions seem logical? If not, verify that the data and
formulas in your spreadsheets are correct.

Table 1
City of Somewhere
2014-2015 Expenditures

2014 Actual
2015 Budget
Change

Amount
% of Total
Amount
% of Total
$ Change
% Change
Expenditures by Department

Personnel

Executive

Public Safety

Other Depts.

Total

Exp. By Fund

General

Utilities

Roads

Total

Exp. By Category

Personnel

Equipment

Other Non-Personnel

Capital

Total

Last Completed Projects