The Most FUNDerful Time of the Year
It’s that time of year again. Not the holidays. Audit season! While the budget is the plan for the fiscal year, the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (the “ACFR”) is its final report card. Here are four areas to help a newbie navigate it.
What to Expect When You’re Expecting a New Administration
Newly elected Mayors, Governors, County Executives and Board chairs take office with their own agendas, approaches, and campaign promises, assuming oversight of a wide range of public services and public servants tasked with fulfilling their priorities. Government employees who have not yet been through a transition may wonder how their new top boss will affect the substance and culture of their work. In today’s post from the W&Y blog, we’ll address some of these concerns from the perspective of the budget office.
4 Ways to Make Your Revenue Estimates Less Wrong
Dust off your crystal ball. Setup the dartboard. It’s time to estimate revenues. And there is one thing we can say for certain about any revenue forecast: It will be wrong. But here are four ways to make your revenue estimates less wrong.
5 Tips for Investing Effectively in Capital Infrastructure
Every Budgeteer (and I suspect, every elected official) knows the feeling of being dragged around by the loudest or last-voiced community priority. The larger and more diverse the city or community, the more variation in how individuals prioritize public goods.
Budget Analyst: The Most Important Job You’ve Never Heard Of
On my first day of Public Budgeting class at the Maxwell School, our professor asked the class, “How many of you think you will get jobs as budget analysts after graduation?” Out of 100 MPA students, only a few raised their hands. I was not one of them. In response, the professor said, “In fact, most of you will become budget analysts or will depend on one!” One year later, I began my career as a budget analyst.
The Progressive Case for Being a Fiscal Hawk
Somewhere over the past 25 years, “fiscal responsibility” became a conservative-coded phrase. For many progressives, these words conjure an image of a hectoring older man, deriding profligate plebs for daring to suggest we have a social obligation take care of the less fortunate.
But liberals need not cede this important policy ground to the finger-wagging right.