Prepare a budget summary for the next fiscal year
Your task is to be assigned by your agency to prepare a budget summary for the next fiscal year. The professor recommends that you use budgets from medium sized cities in the United States, as these types of budgets tend to line up well with the reading and learning. The intent of this assignment is to allow the student to write a research paper and assemble budget schedules. This is a different approach to doing a “traditional” research assignment and since there is a diversity of styles used by governments against the complication of time limited by the term schedule, a more narrowly focused proscription will be offered.
Part I – Research Portion
This part will comprise the “traditional” style of research associated with term papers. In this part, follow the APA style and write at least 8 pages but no more than 10 pages, with the following sections:
1- Introduction (no more than one page; overview of what you will present, including the high points of your work; tell us about the budget you selected and how you will conduct the critique/analysis)
2- Literature Review (multiple pages; this is where you pull together the knowledge that will inform your recommended schedules)
3- Findings/Discussion (multiple pages; what did you learn and how does it apply to your budget?)
4- Implications/Conclusion (no more than two pages; what does it allmean and why would this be of interest to others?)
5- Reference List (here’s a clue — this is the first section I check to see how much work was done on the project; APA requires that only those references actually used in the paper appear in the list).
Part II – Budget Schedules
(Proposed) Now that you have pulled your budget together, here is where you actually present the numbers associated with your budget. This may be done in Excel Worksheets (probably the most expedient), tables, charts/graphs.
The schedules will include at a minimum: Revenues Expenditures Operating Budget By Fund or Code Capital Outlay Personnel/Positions There should be no more than one page per schedule. These should only be the “overview” version that you would in turn make part of your budget presentation. I suggest reviewing the PowerPoint style budget briefs on county or city websites to get an idea of how it looks.
The intent here is not to complicate the assignment, rather to get the exposure to this world. Be thorough in your explanation how your proposed budget comes together. We will discuss the elements of a budget summary during the course and what you will have to include in the final version. Research will include the work of scholars from “Public Budget” literature and other publicly available government materials.
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