Study Suggestions

PADM 5301

Public Budgeting

Spring, 2010

Dr. Neubauer

This list of questions is intended to help you prepare for the final examination which will be given April 20 at our usual meeting time and place. This is a closed book without notes examination. The format will be essay. It is important that you review your midterm examination when preparing for the final examination. The suggestions listed below may or may not be actual questions on the final examination.

1) How does the rational comprehensive approach to decision making and incrementalism as an approach to decision making relate to public budgeting? Is most public budgeting "rational comprehensive" or incremental? Why?

2) Why is it unrealistic to assume that all stakeholders will agree on a single "best budget" based on objective measures of value and costs?

3) Identify and describe the four major steps in the budget cycle.

4) Identify and describe three means by which the "goodness" of a tax (or alternative government revenue source) can be assessed. For example, include and explain the meaning of a tax being progressive.

5) What does it mean to say that a tax is either progressive or regressive. Give an example of a tax that is at least intended by design to be progressive.

6) What is an unfunded mandate? What is the consequence of an unfunded mandate upon the size of the discretionary budget of the unit of government receiving the mandate?

7) If the chief executive (president, governor, or mayor) does not favor a budget request being proposed by an agency official how might the agency official seek to get what he or she wants anyway? In other words, what are the roles of the executive and legislative branches of a government in budgetary processes?

8) What is the difference between an authorization, an appropriation and an allotment?

9) What is the difference between a qualified and an unqualified audit report? Which one is "better?"

10) What is the difference between a budget and an accounting system?

11) What is the difference between a capital budget and an operating budget? What are the implications of the difference in terms of borrowing money to pay for things in the budget?

12) Explain what it means to use the present value methodology to compare two alternative programs that have different patters of costs and benefits spread over a number of years. (The authors of our textbook refer to capital projects as often being "lumpy."

13) What is the difference between a revenue bond and a general obligation bond? Which is likely to be more costly to the government agency and why? Which is considered to be less risky from the investor's perspective. Why must the citizens of a city usually vote to approve a general obligation bond before it can be offered to investors?

14) Why should a local government be concerned about its credit rating? What are some of the factors that affect the credit rating of a local government?

15) Why are municipal bonds relatively attractive to investors?

16) What is a concession contract and what is in it for the city and for the for-profit organization that enters into such a contract?

17) What is federalism and what are the major kinds of grants that flow between governments? What is the affect of mandates upon state and local governments in terms of their finances and their budgetary processes?