Research Assignment 5
California Budget Challenge
The California Budget Challenge allows the public to make simulated changes that influence the state’s budget surplus. Every option available provides a detailed description of why someone would be in favor or against the option chosen. This information acts like a political party that is trying to sell you an idea so that the citizens (in this case the participants of the budget challenge) may pick and vote for one of the two options. In that same way, the detailed description of each choice provides feedback and supports each argument with pros and cons. The goal of this challenge was to balance the budget, instead, the budget surplus increased.
The options chosen did not balance the budget. On the contrary, the budget surplus increased; a budget surplus is not necessarily a negative outcome. The public and private sectors may be frustrated for paying higher taxes; however, a surplus can be beneficial. One benefit is that more money means more spending, which has a positive outcome in the economy. In addition, more money means savings, which administrators can later use on city developments of old buildings. A budget surplus can be beneficial by allocating funds to programs that need it the most. However, according to Jim Christie, the Governor Jerry Brown, plans on saying, “No,” on spending money deliberately. This means the Governor plans to prevent future deficits by saving that extra money. Therefore, the options chosen in the California Budget Challenge did not balance the budget because the state can benefit of the extra funds to recover from past deficits that continued to grow.
The most challenging spending category was Education. According to Jeffrey Gre...
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...ision was to cut the Pension funds because I believe government employees should cooperate today before the economy falls to the point where they have to actually without pay. In addition, a surplus allows using the extra funds and saving them. Nobody knows the exact day when a natural disaster will occur, which will increase the national debt because the government will have to borrow more money to cover the expenses of a disaster relief.
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References
Jim, C. (2013). California Budget Surplus? Governor Introduces Plan That Eliminates Deficit. Huffington Post: Business. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/10/california-budget-surplus- 2013_n_2450349.html
Greene, J. D. (2005). Public administration in the new century, a concise introduction. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. Chapter 5, “Basics of Public Personnel Administration”, 189-227.
...t severely reduced the amount of property taxes collected and thus diminished funding for California's education system. Although, voters intended to reduce state government interference in local governance, the proposition had the opposite effect. The shortfall in tax revenue made it necessary for the State to provide aid to local governments to keep public safety, welfare programs, and education programs running. Property tax revenue at the county level decreased from thirty-three percent to only twelve percent after the implementation of Proposition 13.(Chapman 1998) The allotment of aid means that the state has greater control over how money is allocated and spent, while cities were able to transfer lost revenue onto residents through service fees, counties had to turn to state and federal funding to provide for public safety and public assistance programs.
To illustrate these tendencies, several macro-level trends and events in Illinois’ recent history warrant brief discussion. First, Thomas Walstrum, a business economist from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, published a striking analysis in 2016 concerning Illinois’ fiscal situation that succinctly illustrated how the state’s current fiscal trajectory essentially began in the late 1980s. In his article, “The Illinois Budget Crisis in Context: A History of Poor Fiscal Performance,” he posits that the state could have been categorized as a low-expenditure, low-revenue state prior to the 1990s (Walstrum). Starting in the mid-1990s, however, his analysis shows that the state began consistently spending more than it took in in revenues, significantly outpacing the national average (see figs. 1-3). From the years 1994 to 2010, Illinois’s spending averaged 115.9% of its revenues compared with 105.7% for the typical U.S. state (see fig. 4). The main source of this increased spending was pension-related and since revenues continued to remain low, the state began accruing debt to cover these liabilities (Walstrum). This imbalance between revenues and expenditures indicates that Illinois’ budget has not really been balanced since this period in the 90s. In his analysis, Walstrum also treats the yearly change in pension liabilities as an expenditure, treating future payments as if they were being made right now. In doing so, he demonstrates that Illinois was actually a much higher expenditure state than commonly believed since it was merely deferring those expenditures in the form of pension fund payments well into the future
Throughout the years the U.S has had more budget deficits than it has had surpluses. This is due to the excess in spending and not enough revenues to pay for it. Many have debated over the U.S budget deficit problem. However to fix the problem one has to research the past to figure out how the U.S budget deficit got to where it is now. Hopefully by figuring out this, one could project what the U.S budget deficit will look like in years to come.
He stated that budget cut to education is not good because it will cause “our state’s future to continue to remain shrouded in instability and uncertainty.” In other words, he means education is very important and by making cut in education is it not the ways to solve our problem and get ourselves out of this crisis. O’Connell pointed out that he could not agree more with the Governor call for courageous decision making to close California’s massive budget shortfall, which pegged at $24.3 billion right now. O’Connell argued that “making education the scapegoat for California’s financial mess is not the answer.” In his views, he felt that this will not be a solution. He shows statistics that in this current school year, the governor has proposed about $1.3 billion in cuts and for the next school year, it will be another $4 billion.
health care. The Governor of California wants the taxpayers to believe state employees are the
an unfunded mandate was passed, the state government has to cut into its budget to avoid
“A budget is more than just a series of numbers on a page; it is an embodiment of our values”, Barack Obama. The utterance of these words could not have been a breath more of truth. For the Federal Budget is a reflection of the founder’s aspirations stated on the preamble. To specify, in the simplest of forms the preamble is a mission statement for the nation; it vaguely identifies the steps required for the prosperity of the nation. With the creation of the preamble, along came the Federal Budget; the budget being the nation’s budget that states the overall expenditures. The preamble being utilized in the birth process of the Federal Budget, Due to the lack of alignment between the federal budget and the preamble, funding in The big Five,
Not one person enjoys hearing that their government has spent more money than it has, that their government has taken a bite out of something that they cannot chew, yet never look at it from the positive outlook it can have. An advantageous outlook and result can be obtained from spending; it must be spent the right
“This anti-tax reorientation has decreased the amount and quality of public services; led to increases in alternative, regressive sources of taxation such as the sales tax; and encouraged new kinds of inequalities such as between old and new homeowners, between residents able to afford privatized services and those not, and between communities with other sources of revenue to support schools and services and those without”(Time). With the anti-tax reorientation public services quality decreased. The inequalities in new owners and old are differentiated between residents which affects the younger or new home owners financially. With this political event and government money is primarily focused on schools and services this leads to Americans having to pay more. But instead of negative benefits Americans passed Proposition 13 which gave Americans positive benefits. “On a broader scale, Proposition 13 represented a new unwillingness to view government as a provider of positive benefits to all members of a community and an embrace of more consumerist and individualized ways of securing services”(25 Moments). After the pass on Prop 13 Americans have positive benefits in communities around America. This provided communities around America to have secured services. Lastly after all the government had done for Americans and the positive win-lose benefits help them in the American Dream.
Sielke, C. C. (1995). Budgetary Decision-Making: Is It Rational, Incremental or Garbage Can? Retrieved from Institute of Education Sciences website: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED383048.pdf
State and local governments may be required to contribute partially to programs stemming from nonfederal revenue. When local and state governments have to spend more on these programs less of their own revenue is spent on programs of their choose and
Woodrow Wilson’s purpose in writing “The Study of Administration” is to bring awareness that the government systems in place need to be re-evaluated and improved. Wilson encourages we need to examine the history of administration set forth by others in determining certain needs to be accomplished in effective ways and methods. Wilson’s desirable outcomes for research within the public administration field are for government systems to become more productive and organized.
In the future I would like to see myself, as a continuously promoted public official who could possibly become a pro-active politician in today’s demanding political arena. To achieve this, I would like to gain more knowledge which can help me reach intellectual maturity to the latest practices adopted in the field of Public Administration. My desire for self-development in this area and curiosity to learn past and contemporary developments in different societies will help me to solve the problems easily.
Public Administration involves the development, implementation and management of policies for the attainment of set goals and objectives that will be to the benefit of the general public. Since Public Administration involves taking decisions that affect the use of public resources there is often the question of how to utilize public resources for maximum public good. The National Association of Public Administration has identified four pillars of public administration: economy, efficiency, effectiveness and social equity. These pillars are equally important in the practice of public administration and to its success. This paper seeks to explain the role of each of the pillars in the practice of public administration.
Here in the state of California, in the midst of the 2008 elections, the citizens voted to approve a $10 billion bond measure based primarily on the arguments listed above. It was initially estimated to cost a total of approximately $38 billion, and the balance after the initial $10 billion was going to come from private investment and the Federal Government. Since 2008, several factors have changed, and while the initial benefits are still desirable, our ability to achieve them in a cost efficient manner has come into doubt. The costs of such a project have skyrocketed, and the actual benefit to cost ratio has lowered significantly. The assumed private funding numbers altered dramatically, and the Federal Government has come into a deficit/money crunch of it’s own. On further analysis, the initial ridership numbers don’t seem to be accurate, as California culture is not one that appears to be ready for the shift that would be required to make such a project feasible. Also, travel times appear to be slower than alternate forms of transportation that currently exist....