Week 4 Discussion

Please help discussion question, due 9 pm tonight EST. 

ctivities

• Lecture Topics: the budget as an instrument of fiscal policy, the budget as an instrument of public policy, the budget as a managerial tool, approaches to public budgeting, aspects of financial management, and accounting and related information systems.
• Discussion: Budgeting and Financial Management

Note: Online students, please respond to two (2) of the following three (3) bulleted items.

• From the weekly readings, review Figures 5.1 and 5.2 in Chapter 5 of the textbook. Although the federal budget is for the year 2011 and the state budget is for 2009, you can see the revenue sources are very different. Analyze the overall manner in which the  aforementioned budgets support federalism and intergovernmental relations. Include two to three (2-3) examples of such support in order to validate your response.
• From the weekly readings and e-Activity, evaluate the level of the impact that political influence has exerted upon the budgetary process overall. Suggest  three to four (3-4) strategies that the managers could deploy in order to influence the budget process.
• From the weekly readings, review the types of budgets presented, and respond to the following scenario:

A friend who is a city manager once commented that he liked to put a so-called “radio” item within each budget—an item that would make a lot of noise and attract attention but could be “unplugged” easily. He said that after the council had focused all of its attention on that item and it was finally removed, the council would approve everything else with little question. Imagine that you are preparing a budget for presentation to the council. Propose two-to-three (2-3) tactics that you would use in order to attract attention to and distract attention from a particular line item.

 I have attached the charts and the chapter.