Lecture Notes in Public Budgeting and Financial Management

The following sections are included:

• Foreword
• Preface
• About the Author
• Contents

The following sections are included:

• Setting Priorities in Chongoria
• Budgets Set Priorities
• Stylized Facts about Government Growth
• Budgeting Overview
• Budget Cycle
• The Budget Cycle in Non-profit Organizations
• The Budget Document

The following sections are included:

• Taking Charge at the ORB
• Getting Started on the Budget
• Current Service Budget and Improvements
• Personnel Budget
• Non-personnel Operating Budget

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• A Brief Introduction to Financial Accounting
• Cost Accounting
• Heartland Road Department Cost Analysis

In this lecture, we are going to review a set of tools that can be valuable in budget preparation, especially for non–personnel costs. For most public managers, cost accounting, and cost analysis may appear to be the domain of accountants and financial analysts. What relevance does cost analysis have to the typical director of a public or non–profit agency? We will argue in this lecture that cost accounting should be a basic part of building a budget.

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Cost Analysis
• Strategies for Reducing the Deficit

In this lecture, we will show how the cost accounting system can be used to do various types of analyses that can be valuable in budgeting and financial management decisions, what is commonly called cost analysis.

The following sections are included:

• Budgeting Hardnox
• Budget Office Review
• Legislative Budget Process

The stability of the Congressional budget process that had been in place since the 1920s began to unravel in the mid-1960s. The process focused on passage of a series of appropriation bills, and the stability of the process had been based on the power of the appropriations committees. The chairman of these committees had considerable political power which allowed them to force elements of each house to compromise to assure passage of the appropriation bills. The chairman of these committees viewed their role as that of guardian, which fit their fiscally conservative philosophy and was in correspondence with their constituent interests. In addition, because of the micro-orientation of the budget, i.e., the focus on separate appropriation bills rather than a government-wide budget, the committee chairman were able to dole out enough benefits to members to allow them to accept compromises. Conflict certainly existed but it was kept “behind closed doors”…

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Budget Execution Control
• Control System Design
• Fraud and Financial Accountability in Government
• Ensuring Financial Accountability Via a System of Internal Controls

Today, we will turn to a stage in the budget process that receives less attention – budget execution. In the previous lectures on budgeting, we focused on the first two stages of the budget process – preparation and approval. Although these stages are clearly important, they represent essentially expenditure plans and revenue forecasts. It is in the execution phase of the budget cycle that the budget is turned in to action.

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Capital Budgeting
• Municipal Bonds

In the previous lectures, we have focused primarily on budgeting of current expenditures. Although capital expenditures are certainly part of the budgets prepared by the executive and approved by the legislature, the procedures we have discussed were developed for current expenditures.

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Overview of the Tax System
• Revenue Forecasting
• Tax Evaluation

We begin this lecture with a brief description of the tax system in this country. The tax system – reflecting our complicated federalist system – is a complex web of different tax types used by different levels of government and revenue sharing between levels through intergovernmental grants. We will then turn to a brief discussion of revenue forecasting, which is a crucial part of the budgeting process. Finally, the bulk of the lecture will be devoted to a discussion of the criteria typically used to evaluate tax policies and government revenue sources.

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Structure
• Evaluation

There are two basic types of sales taxes: general sales taxes and taxes on individual commodities (excise taxes). We are going to review briefly the structure of each and then evaluate how they stack up on the criteria presented in the last lecture.

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Property Tax Structure
• Evaluation

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• User Charges

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• State Monopolies (Lotteries)

One of the fastest growing sources of revenue for state and local governments over the last decade is revenue from government lotteries. While total taxes in state and local governments grew by 6.4% per year from 1992 to 2008, lottery revenues grew by 12%, respectively (see Table 13.1). Despite the rapid growth in lottery revenue, they remain a very small source of revenue, on average (1.4% of total revenue). User charges and lotteries are often pitched to the public as revenue sources that are not taxes.