What is a budget? A budget forecasts the financial results and financial position of a company for one or more future periods. A budget is used for planning and performance measurement purposes, which can involve spending for fixed assets, rolling out new products, training employees, setting up bonus plans, controlling operations, and so forth (Bragg, 2017).
The state of Georgia use different budgeting tools for example revenue projection. The state budget is made up from the children that are attending grade school from kindergarten thru twelfth. Low-income parent and children and elderly individuals who is in need of medical coverage are included as well. Georgia Department of Transportation also falls into the state budget along with Georgia Department of Corrections facilities.
…show more content…
Like most states, Georgia collects revenue from a mix of personal and corporate income taxes, sales taxes, gas and vehicle taxes, and various other levies and fees. Income taxes are the cornerstone of Georgia’s revenue system, accounting for about half of all state funds. Sales taxes are the second largest revenue source, accounting for nearly a quarter of annual collections. A fair and reliable revenue system requires both of these taxes (Bragg, 2017).”With budgeting, the federal government use different budgeting tools for example they may use pie graphs or budget trends graphs. The federal budget is made up of General Funds which consist of education, public safety and most other traditional state services are paid for from the General Fund, which includes money raised by the motor fuel tax for
The budget of a government is a summary or plan of the intended revenues and expenditures of that government.
There are some differences and similarity between the State and Federal budget. The Federal budget is bigger than the State budget. The federal government have the sovereign bank. The Federal government have the ability to print additional money when the need arises. The federal budget needs not balance revenues and expenditures for each fiscal year. At the subnational level, appropriations must not exceed revenues in the State budget. This creates restriction which is mandated for almost all the state and local finances. “This imposes a discipline at state and local government which the federal government may chronically evade. States cope by setting aside reserves in good years to hopefully cover deficits in bad revenue years” (n.d., 2012).
The General Fund covers almost everything else within our state. The General Fund covers the operations of the state executive, judicial, and legislative. Also included within the General Fund are public safety, Medicaid, and Department of Corrections. The majority of the revenue that goes to the General Fund is obtained by tax revenue such as the insurance taxes Alabama collects.
Of the money gathered by the state, almost 1 billion dollars is sent to other state agencies (such as the Department of Public Safety, Education, and other state colleges and state parks).3 This money is regulated by the state government to go to these other agencies, which detracts from the department of transportation’s ability to handle road maintenance. So, even before taking into account the increases due to inflation, the budget of TxDOT is decreased by $1 billion dollars (almost half of which goes to the state’s educational system).
The budget process for Indiana is unique. The budget for Indiana’s state government is prepared by numerous parties over a biennial time period, meaning every two years. The fiscal years begin on July 1st and end on June 30th of the following year. The budget process is comprised of four individual stages: preparation, adoption, implementation, and the audit.
Wisconsin has a regular budget. That means Wisconsin state budget regularly contains data about how they will spend the money for a two-year period, from July of an odd numbered year through June of the next odd-numbered year. The current budget period runs from July 2015 through June 2017, and is sometimes referred to as the 2015-17 budget. In Wisconsin, the legislature creates most of the choices about what should be contained in the budget, with considerable input from the governor. The legislature and governor, not to mention the two political parties in the legislature, often have different priorities in terms of how to raise and spend money. That can made contentious negotiations before the budget is finally enacted. The state budget
The Balancing of State & Federal Budgets The purpose of this paper is to analyze and determine the pros and cons of a balanced vs unbalanced financial system by comparing the nature of state budgets to the federal budget. States and local governments operate within the parameters of a balanced annual budget where their total expenditures equal their total revenues generated; however, a surplus can occur when their revenues exceed their expenditures as well as a fiscal deficit when their expenditures exceed their revenues. When state or local governments experience a fiscal deficit due to hardship like a natural disaster, they can petition the federal government for funding in order to reconcile their budgets. However, the federal government
Local and State government must also help to prepare for the budgets. All state governments have a law that they cannot spend more than they receive except for the state of Vermont. Local government must do a similar thing, they must limit themselves on spending so it to, will not exceed revenues.
A government has expenses - in the US this includes everything from pens and pencils, to welfare checks, medicare and medicaid, social security, military expenses, funding for schools, investment to build new highways - every dollar our government spends is part of the nations budget. Some of this spending is discretionary - how many pencils to buy this year or how many new tanks or guns - but much of it is determined by policy and considered to be automatic in nature. Specific criteria are in place that determine who qualifies for welfare or social security and although that policy can change, it is changed through a legislative process that can take quite a bit of time.
According to Smith and Lynch (2004), expenditures and revenues represent as essential guidance for all departments and organizations to prepare a reasonable budget. Also, revenues and expenditures give specialist a reliable and valid opportunity to estimate the needed resources for the future (Smith and Lynch, 2004). This means successful guesses will be effectively proposed in the building the budget. Moreover, expenditures and revenues play an important role in building a balanced budget in terms of the State and local government, because they help the specialist to make educated decisions (Smith and Lynch, 2004). Equally important, is the necessity of expenditures in creating alignment with econometric models. According to Smith and Lynch, "… at the state level, analyst directly relate service expenditures to the state economy, and they relate education and criminal justice expenditures to state demographics and economic factors. They use models not only to predict likely expenditures but also to help policy makers understand the most sensitive factors that influence each functional activity". As Smith and Lynch mention, revenues and expenditures create a solid base of accountability culture inside any business whether it is private or governmental because each
A budget helps you figure out your long-term goals and work towards them. If you just drift aimlessly through life, tossing your money at every pretty, shiny object that happens catch your eye, A budget forces you to map out your goals, save your money, keep track of your progress and make your dreams a
Government budgets no matter on the federal or local level are important because they give insight into what the government’s priorities are for that fiscal year. The current budget in Georgia for the 2017 fiscal year is 43.7 billion dollars. This number is broken down in three areas. The state‘s budget is 23.7 billion. The federal budget for the year is 13.7 billion and the other funds they 6.3 billion. The Great Recession caused a dramatic decrease in state revenues from the 2008 to 2010 fiscal years, falling by $3.6 billion, or 19.2 percent. Revenues improved at a moderate pace since the 2011 fiscal year and have picked up since 2014, yet inflation-adjusted, per-capita state revenue in 2017 is still expected to fall short of pre-recession
In the 2014-2015 budget, whose fiscal year is July 1st, 2014-June 30th, 2015, Gallatin had a proposed total municipal general fund of $34,259,839. The estimated total funds for the 2014 fiscal year was $39,246,745 and the actual available funds for 2013 fiscal year was 38,253,991. The actual total revenue in 2013 was $28,750,055. In 2014, the estimated revenue was $29,406,004 and the proposed total revenue for 2015 is $27,216,293. The majority of the revenue is made up from city taxes, with an estimated tax revenue of $19,441,120 in 2014 and a proposed tax revenue of $20,434,577 in 2015 (2014-2015 Annual Budget). This is interesting because property taxes are 99 cents for every $100 and taxes have
State funding increased from the following year, and it made up approximately twenty-seven percent of the total revenue (University of Georgia, 2016b). Federal funding made up approximately one percent of the total revenue (University of Georgia, 2016b). State funding was the second largest contribution to the University of Georgia’s revenue (University of Georgia, 2016b). (130 words)
A budget is the estimation of revenue and expenses for a certain period of time. It is a microeconomic concept relates with the tradeoff of one good to another. It is a quantified financial plan for an organization which includes sales volume, revenues, liabilities, costs, cash flows and expenses. Budget provides support in comparison of organization expenditure against its profit.