Summary, Evaluation and Comparson of El Paso, Texas and San Diego, California 2012 Budgets

This memo is to serve as description of how the economy can impact projections related to revenues and expenditures in regards to the city budget. Several examples will be provided including explanations on why these items can have a tumultuous effect on the city budget. These examples include the effect property taxes and income taxes had on our fiscal stability as well as how even with proper accounting and financial reporting, the budget still fell victim to the economy.

BUDGET ANALYSIS OF THE CITY OF PHOENIX-2016 WITH THE OBJECTIVE OF MEETING THE NEEDS OF CITY

Public Finance is the role of government in the economy. Transparency and accountability in government financial management is crucial. The reading, “Understanding New York City’s Budget” references that due to government spending of taxpayer money to operate various services, several checks and balances such as Audits, City Council Oversight, Mayor’s Management Report (MMR), and Program Evaluation were put in place for accountability. The adherence to policy, procedures, rules, regulations and laws are important when compliance and integrity is the goal.

State funding is funding provided by the State or a state, especially for a particular project or service. Some 46 percent of K-12 spending nationally comes from state funds. Cuts at the state level force local school districts to scale back educational services, raise more local revenue to cover the gap or both.Most states provide less support per student for elementary and secondary schools in some cases, much less than before the Great Depression, our survey of state budget documents over the last three months finds. Worse, some states are still cutting eight years after the recession took hold. At least 31 states provided less state funding per student in the 2014 school year than in the 2008 school year, before the recession took hold. In at least 15 states, the cuts exceeded 10 percent. A few of the reasons why states have cut funding so deeply is because they have been getting weak revenues so they have been increasing the cost. State policy choices have also differed. As well as the reliance on spending cuts to close budget shortfalls and enactment of recent tax cuts. State revenues have improved lately but not enough to keep pace

Chapters 2 through 8 describe accounting and financial reporting by state and local governments. A continuous problem is presented to provide an overview of the reporting process, including preparation of fund basis and government-wide statements. The problem assumes the government is using fund accounting for its internal record-keeping and then at year-end makes necessary adjustments to prepare the government-wide statements. The problem that follows is presented in the same order as the textbook (beginning with Chapters 3, and

To this date, the erstwhile colonised peoples are still calling for reparations to be paid to them, citing moral obligations of the colonisers and/or settlers, and this call is mostly being made to the white governments in Canada and the United States and to the British government in India. Let us look at three recent cases of such demands and examine how the governments in question have consistently failed to provide “adequate reparations” (as understood by the victimised populations) to the peoples they have wronged. This failure of “adequate compensations” can be ascribed to a guilt that either stems from an inherent moral high ground of the people in power, or because, as Hannah Arendt insists, “[...] guilt is strictly personal.” In that case, what the current generation of white settlers and British population feels is not guilt but simply a tedious sense of obligation for the mistakes of their ancestors.

The Federal budget for the United States is a very important part of what the president must put together every year so every department in the government can know what they will be able to spend in the upcoming year. Government spending generally exceeds the budget put in place which is why America is so far into debt, the good thing about the budget is that about 21% of it goes back into the economy. The fiscal policy is how the government spending and taxation influence the economy based on what goods and services are purchased or the taxes collected.

The City of San Diego’s Fiscal Year Plan for 2016- 2020 provided a thorough analysis of how funds will be properly allocated to help assist with the public service needs, that need to be addressed within the city. As stated in the FY 2016 Budget Monitoring Report, “The purpose of the Fiscal Year 2016 First Quarter Budget Monitoring Report (First Quarter Report) is to provide City Council and the public with an update of General Fund revenues, significant budget projections, new position hiring status and reserves.” The document introduced four Priority Initiative categories that revolved around: Infrastructure and neighborhood investments, public safety, technology improvements and transparency and open data. Those within city departments

The City Manager with the Budget Office are responsible for the creation of the budget but the document is designed for the people. Councilmembers or the City Manager may submit amendments after adoption of the budget. The executive position of City Manager is able to transfer budget amounts within categories, but any inter-category changes or changes in total expenditure require City Council approval. Budget Office approves all changes. This relationship demonstrates the power of the executive branch balanced by the legislature’s approval.

During the 1980’s and 1990’s, state and local governments saw a long period of fiscal stability in which revenues and expenditures stayed steady and predictable. With the dawn of a new century, Fisher (2003, p. 9), questioned if state and local government analysts and leaders would see a continuation of fiscal stability or a return to the previous dramatic instability of earlier decades. The circumstances that could affect stability, or changes in revenue and spending, are economic growth, demographics, public facilities and infrastructure.

They need to approve and adopt the budget. They can vote on changing, adding, and subtracting items from the budget. They are also responsible for creating taxes and amending the laws the city has. They create new ordinances and they listen to what their constituents one (Ballotpedia, 2015).

The only part that raises an alarm and increases the workload is the audit. The budgets are audited after several years. Instead, the contracted firms should work basically for the government from within. Instead of the several budget reviews (an aspect which makes it economical), the auditors should audit details during implementation. Like other analytical process, the budget should be audited at the initial stage, during implementation, and after implementation. Years of workload should not be left to accumulate.

I’m quite impressed by the way TLC (Taxi & Limousine Commision) proceed with its budgeting. The budget process of TLC is the same way like the government builds its budget. In New York, TLC’s inspired budgeting process engages taxi drivers and citizens responsible for adhering to the budget and implementing the agency’s objectives in creating the budget. The finance committee and senior staff input is built into timeline and process. This fact allows adequate time for review, research, feedback, revisions of drivers. before the budget is ready for presentation to the full board. The annual budgeting process is usually documented with everyday jobs, accountability assignments and deadlines. New York TLC budgeting process also incorporates

The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) budget criteria framework covers 27 budgeting categories and was launched in 1984 to encourage the preparation of high quality budgets (Bland, 211). The following memo evaluates the budget of the City of Lake Oswego using GFOA’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Awards Criteria, and also compares it to the budget of the City of Detroit.

Historically, incrementalism has characterized public budgeting because at its core, budgeting has evolved: increased and decreased through gradual stages within the realm of the political arena. The need for this one step at a time type of response, found within incremental budgeting, would have likely been caused by the known fact that prior to the 1900’s public welfare programs, federal, states, and even city spending did not exist in the way in which is more than obviously observable in today’s society simply because America did not employ an actual budgetary system. Therefore, as with any unchartered territory, it was approached in stages, with caution, a little at a time in response to the growing needs of the public. Aaron Wildavsky made this case in his book “The politics of the budgetary process,” when he pointed out “budgeting is incremental, not comprehensive. The beginning of wisdom about an agency budget is that it is almost never actively reviewed as a whole every year in the sense of reconsidering the value of all existing programs as compared to all alternatives. Instead, it is based on last year’s budget with special attention given to a narrow range of increases or decreases.” (Wildavsky 1964, p. 15)