Go to the website of a city or county of your choosing and look for documents relating to that unit’s budget and finances.
Look for the following:
a. Find the chief executive’s budget message. What is the tone of that message? What are the major priorities?
b. Find the budget timetable and budget instructions if they are available on the website.
c. Locate the budget presentation, including any agency narrative and the budget data. Look for budget year, progress year, and report year. Are any out-years provided? Does the budget give other information (e.g., agency request ver- sus council recommendation)? Does the presentation for each agency explain what the agency does, does it provide an organization chart for the agency, and does it explain what its primary objectives for the budget year are? What is the distribution of revenue by source and of expenditure by agency and function?
d. Does the budget give you enough information to allow you to understand what the tasks of the agencies are? e. What is your overall evaluation of the budget presentation? Does it meet your transparency standard? What information did you not find that you would have found useful?