Wilmington's Budget

The budget process is a powerful planning tool for government to make important resource decisions. According the Carney and Schoenfeld‘s article on How to read a Budget, an operating budget is a reflection of government’s financial plans. When a budget is

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.

Public finance officers including budget and fiscal management, hold a range of financial management within businesses and organizations. Budget analysis work closely with management to revise proposals to ensure they are complete, and accurate, and fall within legal boundaries. Budget analysis combine budget proposals from all departments in an organization, to determine, availability of funds, estimate future financial needs, as well as compare previous year data to determine whether the organization is being fiscally responsible. Comparing data will allow analyst and financial managers to determine budget cutbacks or funding requests.

An operating budget is a detailed projection of all estimated income of what an organization expects to make and what it thinks its expenses will be based on forecasted sales revenue during a given period, typically one year. Every year, many organizations prepare an operating budget as it is an invaluable tool in the budget process as it helps the organization in its planning phase and serve as a roadmap for achieving the organization’s goal. The Virginia Department of Transportation also uses this process to to guide its policy and programmatic decisions.

Touchstone budget expresses, in terms of dollars, the funded programs and plans of the Agency for the budget year and the estimated income necessary to finance these programs and plans. The budget is the primary instrument of fiscal control and, accordingly, contains all income and expenditures of the Agency.

Budgeting involves decision making regarding revenue and services for both public and nonprofit organizations. Furthermore, budgeting provides the infrastructure and financial means for our public systems and services. Primarily, the goal of budgeting is to achieve a balance between revenue and expenditures. Governmental allocation and appropriation of funds are a utilized as a political device to uphold the public interest. Appropriations permit policy proposals to manifest from aspirations into accomplishments. Budgeting is the financial consideration that provides resources to the policy promoted throughout all levels of government. Thus, budgeting promotes the values of the executive branch that matriculates to the federal, state and local levels of government. Tedious is the budget process and each stage must be completed meticulously prior to the advancement of each phase so that the budget is successfully implemented.

Managers budget targets will differ from one manager to another, even in the same organisation, and that is similar to how Cairns Taxis operates (Kihn 2011, pp 231) each section has its own budget, however not all managers are aware of what is in them. The CEO manages the budget and all financial matters and major purchases outside normal operating items are generally run past him for approval. Each manager is aware that they have a budget, but not exactly sure as to what is in them. This may sound unusual, but it works, it has a motivating factor for some of the department heads as they effectively try and reduce cost where ever they can.

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 goals. The budgets I have administered were an integral part of the city receiving the GFOA Award for Excellence in Financial Reporting for fifteen straight years. Fewer than 5% of Michigan municipalities receive this annual award. This indicates the budget has been well managed and the City Commission has previously commended staff for this award and audit results.

Firms may have different budgets for different departments of the company. A business should have at least a master budget which is composed of an operational budget and financial budget. The master budget is a money related system utilized to coordinate facilitated spending plans and reports that help meet expenditures and record the firm’s needs. While organizations with many divisions

It makes the education of budget for departments less complicated as well as for the organization as a

This paper will explain the role of an elected public official at the local city level. This city manager has the task of allocating a budget of $10 million dollars that will be matched up to 100% percent if federal standards are met. The report will be prepared for the mayor and city council. The report will address fund accounting, and financial controls. Other topics that will be address are control and management of public expenditures. The report will also explain government financial reporting requirements and analyzing financial statements as well as budgets and applying budgets as disciplinary process. Financial resources are vital and the management of those resources are essential for all organization to thrive.

4. The budget may then be broken down further so that each manager has a budget and therefore some spending power.

Departmental budgets provide overview plan of the activity in each area. Having a budget enables businesses to communicate the set targets to and from managers and other staffs. It promotes coordination and significantly improves communication between departments (Jones, 2004).

The state budget is centralized fund with financial outputs and inputs. Budget revenues are formed from tax and non-tax revenues. The expenses

Thus, the impact of economic and social changes reflected in the expenditure budget. Budget expenditures - funds allocated from the budget for non-repayable basis within the approved budget. As already mentioned, depending on the program (state, local) expenditure of funds for their implementation is made from the relevant budget.