You are to preparing for a challenging City Council Meeting. You need to be able to give the other council members and mayor an accurate “city of affairs” to make sure significant cuts can be made in the appropriate areas, and other critical areas can continue to be funded. Using your local cities 2015-2016 budgets, analyze the financial plan to respond to the following questions in a two- to three-page paper:

1. Based on the review of your city’s Financial Plan: What is the fastest-growing category of expenditures during the planning period? Justify the answer with examples.
2. What percentage of your city’s revenue comes from the general property tax? How much is this tax growing in each year of the financial plan? Justify the answer with examples.
3. Evaluate the existing capacity of refunding or reorganizing existing debt organizations.
4. Analyze the various funding alternatives that can be used to support debt obligations.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Include an abstract and conclusion that you will name (Budget Summary), and attach the budget summary as an Appendix.
• Include the URL of the location of your city’s financial plan and any other documentation you used for your budget summary.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
• Be typed, double-spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Analyze the basic skills and tools needed for budgeting for public sector agencies and / or departments.
• Recommend appropriate policy actions based on the evaluation.
• Evaluate a budgeting system at any governmental level.
• Analyze the scope and sequence of budgeting in terms of sources of revenues, purpose of government expenditures, budget cycles, budget preparation, and debt administration.
• Analyze the steps required for budgeting, such as preparing a budget, making a financial plan, conducting a cost-benefit analysis, and making budget decisions.
• Examine the key components for presenting and justifying the budget to decision makers.
• Prepare a preliminary budgeting system for presentation before Congress, state / local government, or other organization.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in public budgeting and finance.
• Write clearly and concisely about public budgeting and finance using proper writing mechanics.