General Teaching Notes for Courses on Government Budgeting

 All management decisions have financial consequences; public service provision/delivery is especially so, since it is directly linked to tax burden, or user fees, on local residents. It is the link between service and local finance that makes these cases potentially useful and useable for budgeting courses.

 While the Citizen-Driven Government Performance cases were not written specifically for courses on government budgeting, they can be used for such courses, depending on how much hard data--those related to revenue, expenditure, or service delivery--are available in the detailed cases or background material provided for the case. This is so because local governments are most directly responsible for public services that affect the daily life of citizens, and because taxpayers are keenly aware of the performance of local goverments in delivering the services they need, and have the strongest desire to have such performance improved. Service delivery and service improvement are directly lined to the budget.

 Course Objectives

1. To identify the financial consequences of management decisions.

2. To link public service to public finance, more specifically, to local government revenue and expenditure, and ultimately tax burden or user fees that will directly or indirectly be transferred to local residents.

3. To associate service level with government performance, and with citizen satisfaction.

4. To understand and appreciate the relation between citizen participation (motivation) in local affairs with the performance of local governments.

Course Outcome/Competency Development

1. The ability to identify the financial consequences of management issues.

2. The ability to link local government budgets to performance measurement to public service delivery to citizen participation in local affairs.

3. The ability to see through the relations between the quality and quantity of public services provided/demanded and the financial burden on local governments and tax payers.

4. The ability to analyze the trend in the quality and quantity of public services provided in the past to current service delivery, and to make estimates on those items in the near future; thereby estimating potential financial consequences on local governments and tax payers.

 The ultimate tax burden on local residents will in turn affect citizen demand for services and their satisfaction with the performance of local governments, thus completing the loop from service demand to delivery.

• Case in Brief
• Download GASB Cases
• General Budgeting Teaching Notes
• Austin, TX Budgeting Teaching Notes
• Oregon Budgeting Teaching Notes
• Texas Budgeting Teaching Notes

 Local Governments:

Austin, TX; Multnomah County, OR; Portland, OR; Prince William County, VA; Tucson, AZ; Phoenix, AZ; Winston-Salem, NC; Catawba County, NC; Dayton, OH; Coral Springs, FL; Long Beach, CA; Ramsey County, MN 

 State Governments:  

Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Oregon, Texas