The Government Finance Officers Association

|2.1 Explain the purpose of agreeing the format in which a budget will be presented |Question 1 Page 2 |

Budgeting is perhaps the most essential process involved in the United States government. While this process seems to exist only in the background, it is, in reality, what allows all other processes of government to function as they do. In order to satisfy the most necessities of modern society, changes must be made to each of the three major categories of the budget: the big five, the middle five, and the little guys.

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.

Texas’ two-year budget takes roughly twice that quantity of time to prepare, develop and distribute. Offices develop their appropriations requests in the first year; the legislative body approves the “General Appropriation Act in the second year, and the budget implemented over the following two years.” The foremost step in preparing the budget is the evolution of a statewide vision for the future of Texas government. The regulator, in cooperation with the “Legislative Budget Board”, (LBB), handles making the mission statement for Texas.

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.

Lastly, we have the program budget, which designate funds to groups that need to achieve specific goals. Program budgets do not allocate funds to company departments, but to company’s activities. Program budgets are very difficult because there are no specifics to go on, they usually have to go by an estimate, and try to cover all aspects of possibilities (Halliman, 2006).

FLDOE just like other agencies perceive a budget differently and the management believes it as a tool and a plan to create a productive environment and for the company to achieve goals and objectives. Florida Department of Education are responsible for the improvement, growth and use of planned strategic management data for the provision of

A budget requires an organized layout that categorizes revenues and expenditures within particular funds to account for operations, administration, student services, salaries, benefits, transportation, and curriculum development, to name a few. The four funds for budgeting are the General Fund (10), Special Revenue Fund (20), Capital Fund (30), and the Debt Service Fund (40). Categorizing items into funds facilitates the budgetary process by grouping revenues and expenditures to compare expenses and make adjustments to meet educational goals as needed.

The Commissioners Court is required to adopt a final budget by no later than the close of the calendar year. This annual budget serves as the foundation for the County’s financial planning and control. The budget includes appropriations for the general fund, certain special revenue funds, debt service funds, and proprietary funds. The budget is prepared by fund, function, department, and object codes. Transfer of appropriations between departments requires the approval of Commissioners Court.

83). As part of their duty to develop and approve sound fiscal policies, board members must review and approve proposed budgets, include a review of the budget’s reasonableness, and make sure that financial transactions are correct by spot-checking various financial transactions (Konrad & Novak, 2004). Once a budget has been reviewed and approved, the board is responsible for ensuring that there are adequate resources for the implementation of the new budget (Konrad & Novak, 2004). However, this does not mean that members of the board are responsible for writing grant proposals, “rather they must take ultimate responsibility for the financial success of the organization” (Konrad & Novak, 2004, p. 84). Although board members designate a fellow board member to act as treasurer, the financial responsibility does not fall on that individual, rather the responsibility is shared equally by each member, hence why it is important that each member acquire a basic knowledge of financial matters for service as a board member (Konrad & Novak, 2004).

The State of Nebraska has a biennium budget that is set from 2013 all the way to 2015. Knowing what is in your budget and how to properly gauge what will be needed for the coming two years in each department is an important aspect to a successful budget. The person in charge of the budget for each department needs to know how to properly budget and respond to the needs of the state in the most fiscal way possible. A budget is only as good as the person who is running it. The Nebraska State budget is complex, but with the right amount of team work and dedication, it seems to run very smoothly.

* Transparency. Budget-based fees encourage transparency by requiring Mayfield to produce an expense list, providing LPs greater information compared to the traditional management fee based on committed capital.

Since the time I was appointed as City Manager the previous budgets have been approved by the City Commission and successfully covered city operations without utilizing general fund revenue all the while addressing City Commission concerns. Each year the city has operated within budget confines resulting in general fund growth with revenues exceeding expenditures. I have helped to foster these general fund increases despite little to no growth in the consumer price index and challenging economic times, which included the most severe recession our country has experienced since the great depression of the 1930’s.

“It’s clearly a budget. It’s got a lot of numbers in it” (George W. Busch 2005). This definition of a budget can be supplemented using the Oxford dictionary, which states that a budget is an estimate of income and expenditures for a set period of time. Nowadays almost every business uses budgets and managers use them as a tool in order to set targets. In other words managers can, with the use of budgets, explain in a financial way what are the

This project seeks to bring out the budgeting and budgetary control practices of UT financial institution, Koforidua, and how they can make sure their budgeting practices are done in such a way as to incur minimal or less cost for the organization