The budget for the City of Dalles exhibits a flexible budget. This is because the budget is prepared at different levels. The budget was prepared by the Dalles city council department managers and other stakeholders. Flexible budgets show a plan for different levels of activity. This budget can be used to evaluate performance when the budgeted level of activity is the same as the actual results
Budget Contextual Issues
Budgeting is a process of planning and controlling the use of assets in running the business activities of an organization. It is a comprehensive process that cuts across various departments in an organization such as in finance and operations among others. Therefore, budgets help management to control the use of the city’s resources in the provision of services to residents of Dalles City. Also, they form a basis for comparing performance against the targets. The main concern of this budget is the maintenance of the General Balance Ending Fund to balance with the four months General Operating Fund net expenditures. Besides, the budget attempts to prioritize projects of the city in terms of funding needs and urgency. Besides, the budget addresses the income of its staff through a substantial increase in their earnings.
Program Priorities
The main programs that are prioritized in the budget are completion of the Public Works Relocation Facility, completion of the Widening Project for the Tenth Street, environmental project completion, and upgrading water/sewage management system within the city. The projects that aim at providing public goods such as roads, environmental conservation, and housing are given the top priorities in the budgeting plan.
Government Actions
The main actions that the government should adopt to ensure that inflows and outflows are balanced in the budget include partnerships with the stakeholders and partners in the infrastructure expansion projects for the city. Besides, the government may introduce a clear tax policy and revenue collection in terms of property taxes, income taxes, and household good taxes. Besides, the authority can initiate special tolling services aimed at increasing the revenue collection.
The relevance of the Budget Message
The budget message captures the three main elements of a complete budget. There are long term, short term, and midterm goals that are allocated resources according to their agency and costs of implementation. Besides, the budget statement has a clear policy for reviewing performance and raising revenues to fund its development goals. Also, the budget factors in the demands of the city in terms of infrastructure and possible means of financing their expansion.
Nature of the Budget Message
Being a public institution budget, it is apparent that it has a political language especially in addressing the core social pillars of the City such as environmental conservation, provision of public good (road expansion), and macro-management of the city’s sewage and water systems. Besides, the voters fall in the first pyramid in the hierarchy of the command chain. Reflectively, macro social issues are given priority in the allocation of resources and funding.
Conclusively, the main issues identified in this budget are the focus on the difference between the actual and budgeted amounts. It analyzes the total variance between standard and actual results in apportioning funds for different priorities of the city of The Dalles. Being a public institution, the budget is characterized by a strong political language.