Introduction
Clayton County was established on November 10,1858 by the Georgia State Legislature. A bill tabled by Colonel James E. Johnson from Fayette county in the legislature led to the formation of the County. Consequently, this resulted in Clayton County formed from Fayette and Henry counties. The famous a Georgia Attorney and United States congressman known as judge Augustin Smith Clayton assumed the County name. The county occupies nearly 149 square miles. The county lies ten miles from Atlanta, and it borders Fulton, Henry, Fayette and Spaulding counties in all her four sides (Clayton County FY 2015, 2014).
The county has a good climate as it realizes all the four- season climate in a year. The cities such as Jonesboro, Morrow, Lovejoy, Riverdale and Forest Park make the County. The Clayton County population has steadily increased over the years from a population of 10,260 in 1930 to 150,357 in a census conducted in 1980 (Clayton County FY 2015, 2014). The drastic growth of the county population can be attributed to the closeness of the county to downtown Atlanta Georgia. Moreover, the population has drastically increased from the year 1990 to 2000 at a rate of 29.9%. Furthermore, the population has continued to increase to a population of 259,424 in the year 2010, this articulates a growth rate of 9.7% over the last decade. The population is estimated to grow to 272,600, by the end of year 2014 (Mikesell, 2014).
A board of commissioners made of four elected commissioners and a chairman, governs the County (Clayton County FY 2015, 2014). It also has a vice-chairman who elected amongst the commissioners. The chairman serves for a full term of four years while the district commissioners servers on a part-time basis. The chairman takes care of the daily activities in the county. The board of commissioners possesses the following jurisdictions: they are responsible for making and controlling annual county budget, they levy general and specific taxes, and they can close down, create or modify roads, bridges and ferries according the law provisions. Moreover, they assume responsibility of all the county offices, unless there is somebody authorized by law to occupy the office. Furthermore, they scrutinize, resolve, and permit all claims against the county. They also scrutinize and audit the accounts of the county finance officers. They also act as lawmakers of the county (Clayton County FY 2015, 2014).
Conformance of budget document with GFOA award criterion
The fiscal year 2015 budget document for Clayton County is a comprehensive annual budget document. The budget document contains an introduction prose. The introduction part houses the general and summary information about the Clayton County. It contains information such as the County history, budget messages, administration structures, services offered, County population and mission statements.
After the introductory part, the budget document has the budget summary section part. It summarizes the revenues and the expenditure of the Clayton County for the current year and two preceding years. Moreover, it contains charts exemplifying projected financial sources and expenditures for all funds. Furthermore, the budget summary section has the report of the County employment policy and modifications made to the personnel number for the current year and two previous years.
The policy and procedures section comes after the budget summary section. The part exemplifies the strategic planning parameters of the Clayton County Georgia. It also encompasses the budget development guidelines. Moreover, it has the process followed when preparing the budget and budget calendar. Moreover, this section comprises of all the assumed financial policies, basics of accounting and an explanation of all funds as per the Clayton County budget policies and guidelines.
The other section is the capital budgeting. This part comprises of the capital improvement plan, designed for the current and future years. It also encompasses the financial impression of capital expenditures and all the capital projects on the operating budget. Moreover, the section also details the fixed assets housed in the Clayton County geographical area (Government Finance Officers Association, 2014).
Moreover, the 2015 budget document has another section of departmental budgets. This section contains missions, goals and objectives for each county department. It also contains performance measures and important employment and expenditure alterations. Additionally, it also contains the expenditure breakdown of the Clayton County budget. The last part of the budget document is the appendix. The appendix contains the legal debt margin of Clayton County, narrative and schedules and salary ranges for classified positions. It also encompasses glossary and fund a matrix for the Clayton County (Friedman & Souza, 2012).
Evaluation of the document as per the GFOA guidelines
The Government Financial Officers Association, yearly award quality budget documents for the government organizations. The awarding process follows the criteria of the award presentation program. The fiscal year 2015 budget document for Clayton County can be assessed her quality by using the guidelines provided by Government Finance Officers Association. The first threshold aspect is the availability of the table of contents (Griffin, 2010). However, this budget document does contain an exemplified table of contents. The table of contents helps one in locating information in the document. After the table of contents, the document should have a strategic goals and strategies that details the future of the organization. The Clayton County fiscal year 2015 budget has a budget message that includes the financial goals and other planning processes. The document also contains the short-term organizational factors, which helps in the designing of the budget for the upcoming year.
The other aspect is the presence of priorities and issues. The priority and issues part should focus on the issues affecting the development of the budget and the solutions provided for those issues. It also exemplifies how priorities for the prior years differ from those of the current year. The budget document of Clayton County, for the fiscal year 2015 has detailed this aspect. Budget overview is another aspect that a quality budget document should have. It should summarize the important budgetary items into a format that is easier for one to understand. The budget document selected has done a comprehensive budget review (Lee, Johnson & Joyce, 2013).
Organization chart should be included in a quality budget document for an organization. The chart should show the entire entity, an aspect in the Clayton County budget document for financial year 2015 (GFOA, 2010). There should also be a section showing fund descriptions and fund structure in the budget document. The Clayton County budget document has described all the funds that are subject to appropriation in the budget. Moreover, the department fund relationship should also be illustrated in the budget document. The budget document that is under evaluation has shown these relationships. The basis of budgeting is another aspect that the budget document should have (Guess & LeLoup, 2010). The Clayton County budget document has articulated this phenomenon. Financial policies and budget process are other aspects that a quality budget document should have. The financial policies, goals and the process of budgeting should be included in the budget document as in the Clayton County budget document.
There should also be several financial summaries for a budget document to qualify for the awarding. There should be consolidated financial schedule that summarizes all the major revenues and expenditures. Moreover, there should be a three or four year consolidated and financial schedules, and that includes summaries of financing sources and expenditures of the prior, current and proposed budget year. A fund balance shows estimated modifications in fund balances in the budget document. The budget document should also have revenue section that details on the major revenue sources in all the aspects. It should also contain long-range financial plans, that shows their influence to the budget and the budget process. The budget document of Clayton County for the year ended June 30th, 2015 has incorporated all those aspects in a comprehensive and concise manner (Hendrick, 2011).
The budget document should also possess capital and debt aspects (Bui, 2012). Capital expenditures should provide detailed total amount of capital expenditures. The effect of capital investments on operating budget is a crucial aspect of the budget document. Debt is also a crucial phenomenon explained in relation to the current debt levels and the legal debt limits and their effects. These aspects have been included in the budget document under evaluation.
The budget document should include departmental information in relating to the budget. The staff’s summary schedule for the previous, current and budgeted year are key in the budget document. Department descriptions should also be done, in terms of their activities and operations. Moreover, the unit goals and objectives of those departments within the organization should be described. Performance measures for the organizational units and the whole organization are key to quality budget document. The selected budget document has addressed these departmental information needs. (Henkin, 2009).
The last aspect considered is the document -wide criteria, this is the statistical and supplemental data that describe the organization, her community and population (Elmer & Leigland, 2014). A glossary should also be provided to make the document clear for the terminologies used. Moreover, the use of graphs and charts in further explanation of the information should be done. Lastly, the document should meet the threshold of usability and understandability for an average reader to understand it. The selected budget document meets these qualities.
Conclusion
The Clayton County budget document for the year ended 30th June 2015, is usable to both her constituents and other stakeholders (Hou, 2013). The explanation for this statement is the ability of this budget document to meet the evaluation criteria used by the GFOA. The document has made all the inclusions for the various services it offers and the capital they require. Moreover, the document has shown the different sources of revenue for the government. All these aspects show the usability and understandability of the budget document to all the stakeholders of Clayton County. The usability can also be articulated to the developments that have been realized in the County. Additionally, the ever growing population in the County has indicated favorable living conditions which are dictated by a good usable budget
References
Bui, A. (2012). Financial management for water utilities principles of finance, accounting, and management controls. Denver, Colo: American Water Works Association.
Clayton County FY 2015 (2014). Annual operating budget fiscal year 2015. Web.
Elmer, V. & Leigland, A. (2014). Infrastructure planning and finance: a smart and sustainable guide. New York: Routledge.
Friedman, D. & Souza, K. (2012). A guidebook for evaluating fuel purchasing strategies for public transit agencies. Washington, D.C: Transportation Research Board.
GFOA (2010). Distinguished Budget Presentation Award Program (Budget Awards Program). “Criteria”. Web.
Government Finance Officers Association. (2014). Budgeting for outcomes. Web.
Government Finance Officers Association. (2014). Distinguished Budget Presentation Award Program (Budget Awards Program). Web.
Griffin, C. (2010). Lives in the balance improving accountability for public spending in developing countries. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Guess, G. & LeLoup, L. (2010). Comparative Public budgets, global perspectives on taxing and spending. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Hendrick, R. (2011). Managing the fiscal metropolis the financial policies, practices, and health of suburban municipalities. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Henkin, T. (2009). Debt finance practices for surface transportation. Washington, D.C: Transportation Research Board.
Hou, Y. (2013). State government budget stabilization policy, tools, and impacts. New York, NY: Springer.
Lee, R., Johnson, R. & Joyce, P. (2013). Public budgeting systems. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Mikesell, J. L. (2014). Fiscal administration: Analysis and applications for the public sector (9th Ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth.