PADM 5420

Public Budgeting

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2017-2018.

This course is designed for students who intend to pursue a career in budgeting or have budgeting as a significant job responsibility whether in a government agency, a non-profit, or the private sector.  It takes a practitioner's viewpoint of how to create and administer operating and capital budgets.  It will focus on tax policies, the legislative budget process, budget variance analysis, capital planning, and bond ratings.  The course will also examine how budget deficits form and persist, how pension obligations contribute to these deficits, and how nations, states and municipalities have been driven into bankruptcy and emerge from it.  There will be several guest speakers.  There are two written assignments and a final exam. 

When Offered Spring.

Distribution Category (HA-HE, SBA-HE)

• Students will demonstrate an understanding of budgeting in the public and nonprofit sectors, as well as how a budget moves through the legislative process.
• Students will demonstrate an understanding of how economic factors shape public budgeting processes, including economic growth rates and tax bases.
• Students will evaluate budget requests from political, legal, and financial perspectives.
• Students will draft two applied budget analyses for a government agency or nonprofit organization.

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