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. “Access to good financial information is essential to success in the policy and financial management arenas” (Bartle, Hildreth, Marlowe. P. 222). Proper accounting is the cornerstone to working towards a balanced budget. The CAFR (comprehensive annual financial report) …show more content…
For the example in this memo, I will be focusing on the funding of educational programs. As you are aware, 38% of the property taxes fund school programs such as athletics, arts, and all day kindergarten. Due to the great recession, property values here in the Knoxtown area were greatly affected and a majority of properties lost nearly 50% of their assessed value. A significant portion of our constituents also lost their homes. Due in some part to these two factors, our projected revenue was not met. The overall revenue for the city was down 42% resulting in a serious budget shortfall. The loss of these property taxes resulted in the cutting of many school programs. The children of our constituents not have fewer athletic and arts programs to choose from as well as eliminating full day kindergarten for the next term. If corrections to the budget are not made, some bus services and reduced lunch programs will also be eliminated. The unexpected closing of the local plant due to the downturn in the economy and the amount of layoffs as a result has reduced the amount of income tax collected in the city. Income taxes fund 23% of the projected budget revenues for police and fire services. The lowering of the available revenues from income tax for funding of police and fire services will have dire repercussions. The projected income for the fire department is greatly needed to replace the aging truck fleet. The loss of this income could result in loss of life because the city has insufficient fire trucks that operate
The financial health and welfare of Thurston County is dependent upon establishing and maintaining sound budgetary principles and strategies for implementation. These financial principles will govern the development and administration of budgets for all county offices and departments. The County is to prepare fiscal and capital budgets that are to be balanced to be able to forecasted, which are to be consistent with approved strategic goals and capital improvement goals. Each county office and department will periodically seek to use citizen feedback in the development of the internal strategic plans to develop the high priorities for Thurston County government. For each department, resources are made available that will remain aligned with the strategic planning and priorities developed with the public input. Thurston County will create and maintain a reserve for the general fund that is equal to one month of the budget annual expenditures. The reserve will serve the purpose of the financial stabilization account to safeguard against possible revenue shortages
Collection of information is essential to support the major functions and activities of the organisation. To ascertain this it is essential to have regular reports of the organisation and to do this you need regular financial reports and audits. A true vision of the organisation will give any management a better understanding of their situation and will thus help them to make a good viable decision.
Alexandria, Virginia is home to over 8,000 thriving businesses and organizations. The City's budget serves as the blueprint for financial decisions implemented during the fiscal year. The FY 2011 Operating Budget and Capital Improvement Program (CIP) maintained its commitment to the residents of Alexandria. The General Fund is $531.6 million, an increase of 0.3 percent over last year’s budget maintaining all of the core city services despite the challenging economic conditions. Alexandria residents will pay about $125 more in property taxes along with higher fees for parking meters and storm-water management projects, among other services. The real estate taxes increased slightly but still remain among the lowest in the Northern Virginia region. In the budget, $167.9 million was allocated to the Alexandria City Public Schools, and a $1.6 million increase was set aside for transit subsidy. The final change
Farmersville is in major deficit since the recession. In order to increase the budget the City of Farmersville needs a solution, which will benefit 10,704 people who lives within the city limits. To be able to increase the budget the city came up with two measures, this measure intends to help people of Farmersville, California, which will bring more jobs, better service for the community, and road construction and will bring programs to help the young and the elderly.
Americans are not unfamiliar with the concept of a budget, in fact, most follow a budget on an everyday basis, however, the topic of a public budget can be overwhelming to many them. Although many Americans might have a small concept of how the federal budget works, very few are familiar with their local budget process, and even less familiar to their adopted annual city budget. Every local budget is as unique as the cities who developed them. The following paper will summarize, evaluate, and compare El Paso Texas and San Diego California’s 2012 budgets. It will compare their revenues, expenditures, and budget format. It will attempt to analyze the similarities and differences and determine the causes of such similarities and differences.
As taxpayers, people are required to pay imposed taxes and derived taxes. Since payments are not voluntary as opposed to nonprofits, people want to know where the government currently stands, whether it has sufficient revenues for efficiently running current public services, and how much it has improved compared to last year. Examining government-wide financial statements will give readers a basic understanding of the government’s condition. The government-wide financial statements consist two parts: the statement of net position and the statement of activities. Based on the statement of net position, in 2015, the State of California has a deficit of about $41.0 billion. Compared to the past 10 fiscal years, the fiscal year of 2015 has the least amount of total governmental activity net position and total primary government net position. In addition, the unrestricted deficit as a percentage of total assets is -75.64%, which is close to -100%. This number
Bibb County School budget is designed and put to use to show the plans of the programs that are set for the year. The content of this paper is a general overview of the Bibb County school budget and what the main functions and the role it serves within the community. The key expenditures and how they determine public policy significances will also be identified. Among the other matters to be presented is if the budget of the Bibb County School has increased or decreased since last year, can the school still deliver service, are they still distributing resources sensibly and the recommendations for the future of the Bibb County Schools.
As the business environment grows and companies find new ways to expand into their respective - or even new – markets, it is important that reporting standards stay up to date with changes and continue to assist companies in providing their users with useful accounting information. Information is labelled as being useful when it meets the
Mason City, Iowa is commonly referred to as the ‘River City’ due to its concentrated development on the Winnebago River, and it is sentimentally known for its outstanding musical heritage. The following report describes the political, socioeconomic and fiscal environment for the city of Mason City. In particular, potential constraints in fiscal outlook as it relates to the city’s revenue structure, own source funds and level of state and federal aid. This report explores the city’s revenue structure in preparation of a comprehensive fiscal analysis.
People are becoming aware of the financial discrepancy between upstate New York and New York City. Today, the state cuts taxes across the board and letting the market operate; the state has opted to launch some targeted public and public/private initiatives to reenergize the economy Upstate. New York State will do better by making itself more tax-friendly to businesses and
The New York City fiscal crisis of the 1970s was a turning point in the history of the city and played a significant in role in shaping the city that we live in today. According to Britannica Encyclopedia a fiscal crisis is the “inability of the state to bridge a deficit between its expenditures and its tax revenues. Fiscal crises are characterized by a financial, economic, and technical dimension on the one hand and a political and social dimension on the other.” The NYC fiscal crisis caused a substantial amount of cuts in reference to city services to help avoid the city ending up in bankruptcy. The crisis was an effect of the inadequate leadership by government officials which led to the
The city of Long Beach has an abundance of culture, resources, diversity and means. This reflection is what attracts many people to visit downtown, attend school and other surrounding vicinities. At the close of Fiscal Year 2015, “the City’s assets increased $118.9 million, or 3.5 percent from the prior fiscal year. Citywide, assets increased $282.3 million or 5.0 percent” (Finance, 2016). The report also states, “sales tax revenues increased 8.6 percent or $5.1 million. Other taxes, inclusive of transient occupancy and business taxes increased 937 percent or $4.0 million (Finance, 2016). Residents and visitors vast amount of travel and contributions to the city, allows those funds to be allocated to other public services in the community.
The budget for the city of San Clemente has received the Distinguished Budget Presentation Awards from the Government Finance Officers Association for the past 17 years. Not surprisingly, considering those honors, the city's budget is organized in a manner largely consistent with the guidelines we have learned in this course.
Understanding the sources (incomes) and uses (expenses) of funds, and the budget deficit/surplus that results, are core accounting measures to consider in short and long term personal financial planning. Also, grasping key concepts like how your salary/wages are earned and segmented/taxed is important in determining your net incomes. How to approach deficits and surpluses and their associated action plans come from sound accounting understanding. Accounting develops controls on how to deal with budget deficits like increasing income, reducing expenses and borrowing. Understanding how sunk costs and opportunity costs factor into alternative choices and borrowing come to us from sound accounting knowledge and play a role in personal planning. Lastly, through various standard reporting approaches, we, though accounting, can develop the ability to look at current and future personal finance decisions and health via income statements, balance sheets, ratios and other common size book keeping measures.
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.