Page 1 |
Previous | 1 of 2 | Next |
|
This page
All
Subset
|
further explained in the next article. Zero base budgeting, a more complex system, has been successfully used by Wilmington, Delaware. Wilmington has achieved outstanding results by means of (1) a conscious effort to reduce personnel, (2) the implementation of an improved budget technique, and (3) a management emphasis on operational efficiency. David Singleton of Wilmington has said, "The city must be realistic and blunt as to its ability to fund the demands of its Three improved budgeting technique* A government official who wants to strengthen his unit's financial management has a wide variety of planning and budgeting systems to choose from. The three planning and budgeting techniques which follow illustrate this variety. More importantly, they demonstrate how sound planning and budgeting enhance the effectiveness of overall management and how they can contribute to substantial cost savings. Each of these systems: • Improves the quantity and quality of information about government operations, providing a sound basis for decision-making. • Facilitates operations reviews, enabling officials to update pro-constituents. For survival the city must keep taxes within reason." Wilmington's experience with ZBB is further explained in the article which follows. The taxpayer revolt has provided a warning to local governments across the country. Glenn Jackson of the Anti-tax National Taxpayers Union repeats the point. "Jarvis Cann and the successful voter referendum to roll back property taxes in California will unleash a massive wave of similar proposals across the country. grams in order to meet changing priorities and to increase cost effectiveness. D Provides a sound basis for long range planning. If funding shortfalls are foreseen, officials have time to redirect resources, alter service levels, or increase revenues, avoiding "crash" program reductions. Below are descriptions of each of the three systems: Contingency Planning in Greenville Contingency planning helps officials to make the hard choice between changing tax levels and meeting the expectations of citizens. Contingency planning is a long range system that estimates revenues over a five-year period and then compares the alternative expenditures required to provide service. To implement the system, Greenville, S.C. set up a task force of internal and external consultants to measure the widening gap between expected revenues and expenses for the given period. Since the mayor and city council wanted to minimize tax increases over the five years, the task force was instructed to find People have reached the breaking point." The message is clear. A balance will have to be struck between demand for more and the ability to pay for it. Improved management budgeting and control process will either be used by public officials or forced on them. The tools for examining alternatives, setting priorities, and implementing those activities as effectively as possible are available. All that is needed is a commitment to use them. a ways to close the gap by making city operations more productive. Accordingly, the task force: • Prepared a detailed five-year general fund forecast for revenues, expenditures, and fund balances. • Formalized the service objectives of the mayor and city council, consistent with locally generated revenues. • Surveyed citizens on their perceptions of the quality of city services. • Analyzed city operations to identify productivity and cost savings opportunities. These were grouped into three categories, based on the time required for implementation and the cost of the level of service: —Priority I Improvements: quick implementation with no significant impact on service levels, (e.g., cutbacks in unnecessary overtime). —Priority II Improvements: four to six months implementation time, but little impact on services (e.g., departmental consolidation). —Priority III Improvements: long-term implementation, requiring 43
Object Description
Title |
Three improved budgeting techniques |
Author |
Burnett, Stephen W. |
Subject |
Local finance Municipal finance Budget |
Office/Department |
Touche Ross. Atlanta Office |
Citation |
Tempo, Vol. 25, no. 1 (1979), p. 43-44 |
Date-Issued | 1979 |
Source | Originally published by: Touche Ross, & Co. |
Rights | Copyright and permission to republish held by: Deloitte |
Type | Text |
Format | PDF page image with corrected OCR scanned at 400 dpi |
Collection | Deloitte Digital Collection |
Digital Publisher | University of Mississippi Library. Accounting Collection |
Date-Digitally Created | 2010 |
Language | eng |
Identifier | Tempo_1979_Spring-p43-44 |