Government and Budget Process

 Topic #1Government and Budget Process

Thread Prompt: In a 750-word evaluation, discuss how the role and function of budgeting has been utilized to correct externalities and other market failures. Additionally, justify the use of taxpayer resources to correct externalities and other market             failures

Thread Outline Use bolded statements as headings in your thread.

I.          Summarize the role of the government in the budget process

II.         Analyze the role of the government in correcting externalities and other market failures

III.       Justify the use of taxpayer resources to correct externalities and other market            failures

 

Externalities are a consequence of a governmental activity that affect other parties without this being reflected in the cost of the goods or services involved. Externalities by nature often are environmental. Some examples of negative externalities include:

• Air pollution

• Water pollution

• Farm animal production

• Passive smoking.

• Traffic congestion

• Noise pollution

Market failure is an inefficient allocation of resources. Government failure occurs when government intervention results in a more inefficient and wasteful allocation of resources.

 

 

Reply Prompt: Reply to your classmates’ threads taking the conversation deeper and expanding upon areas where you agree and disagree. Make sure that you support your assertions with scholarly and/or biblical references. Each reply must be 250 words, citations in APA format.

Post #1

I. Summarize: The role of the government on the budget process:

“In the United States, budgeting is a process marked by competition among committees and branches of government and limited by revenue ceilings and spending caps” (P.N. Hess, p. 583, 2016).   The process is strongly dependent on the different political administrations that are in office at the time of budgeting or change (Hess, 2016).  All of these factors can greatly impact taxpayer resources and how they are distributed due to various beliefs of administration; these factors may also weigh heavy in one area such as spending extra dollars to reduce carbon emission, while the devotion to one may cause failure to another important externality.  

Budgeting is important in all aspects of life in order to succeed in the goal at hand.  Understanding how government budget process works and implementing it to benefit the safety and livelihood of American people will contribute to success of the job at hand even if it is not fully achieved.  Always listen to what peers are seeking.  

II. Analyze: The role of the government in correcting externalities and other market failures:

Long term effects of carbon emission contributes to global warming.  Global warming is an increasing threat to civilization as it can cause increase in temperatures, smog, air pollution, extreme weather, and so forth. Armon Rezai, Duncan Foley, and Lance Taylor emphasizes that all generations can should contribute to a better mix of conventional capital and stock of greenhouse gases (p.330, 2011).

The world has reached an all-time high of needing help with reduction on causes of global warming.  If “we” continue as we are life as we know it will not be for our children and/or grandchildren.  

III. Justify: The use of taxpayer resources to correct externalities and other market failures:

“Human emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere are negative externality, despite world political efforts such as the Kyoto Protocol and its carbon market, the majority of individual produced do not take into account the impact of their emissions on atmospheric co2, but atmospheric concentration of co2 affects them (or their descendants’) collective well-being through the deleterious effects of global warming.  Such negative externality leads to a market failure and an inefficient allocation of resources (Rezai& et al, p.350).  

Utilizing taxpayer resources to try to help cut down on externalities and other market failures is vital in the sense that while it may not always seem logical, it is important for our environment and our children’s environment. I was always told there are three things that are guaranteed in life; we are born, we pay taxes, and we die. It is a sad truth.  As “we” continue to contribute in the growth of global warming there will continue to be a need to try to find a way to advance in cleaner air and cleaner water.  

IV. Conclusion:  Bringing all together:

Budgeting is important in all aspects of life: personally and professionally.  Budgeting consists of articulation of demands and also needs and prioritization of demands in order to keep totals in some sort of discipline (Rubin, 2015).  While budgeting is vital, it is not always successful in what it is trying to accomplish; example:  We have obtained millions of dollars in taxpayer money to utilize in the attempt to save the environment and decrease/prevent future global warming.  We place all this money in trusting political hands to use for global warming, but the money is split for global warming, traffic congestion, noise pollution, and passive smoking. How much of the money will actually be allocated to the true indicated recipient?  Were all resources utilized to ensure that the money was distributed fairly and used to promote positive outcomes?  As stated earlier, it will all depend on who is elected in office at the time as to who and how tax paying dollars are spent. 

It has been interesting over the years to see different political affiliates in office and      how popular concern has escalated or deescalated depending solely on their political preference.  

I look forward to the next eight weeks with all of you, learning and growing in this subject.  May God see us through as we continue our day to day work/family/school lives.  May he make sure that we never fail to dedicate what is needed in all areas.

God Bless you all,

Marla Kirk 

References

Hess, P.N. (2016). Economic Growth and Sustainable Development (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi-org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.4324/9781315722467.

Rezai, A., Foley, D.K. & Taylor, L. Global warming and economic externalities. Econ Theory 49, 329–351 (2012). https://doi-org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.1007/s00199-010-0592-4

Rubin, Irene S. (2015). Public budgeting: Policy, process and politics. New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN: 97807656169

Willoughby, W. F. (1918). The movement for budgetary reform in the states. D. Appleton. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/F0151776531/MOML?u=vic_liberty&sid=MOML&xid=47bd4447&pg=1

Post # 2

Advanced Public Administration Finance and Budgeting

 

Government and Budget Process Forum 1 (Module 1)

I.                   The role of the government in the budget process

The role of the government in the budget process begins with what are called “public goods”, some goods will not be supplied in the market or, if supplied, will be supplied in insufficient amounts because of their very nature (Mikesell, 2018). There is excited talk about the differences between what has been and what will be the great divergence between the skills and role of the analyst and the job of the examiner; of the realignments in government structure that might result from changes in the budget process (Schick,1966). The roles, visions, and incentives service-delivery in the budget process Involves several choices, each with different approaches biases to the participants in the budget process, but recognize as those approaches that are aware of the errors, incentives and organizational blind spots inherent in each (Mikesell, 2018). Budgetary Man, whatever his station or role in the budget process, is assumed to be guided by an unwavering commitment to the rule of efficiency; in every in- stance he chooses that alternative that optimizes the allocation of public resources (Schick,1966). The budget office may have many roles from time to time, issues in budgeting has been the role of the executive budgeting office as a policy analyst which is identified as a control orientation on key issues in whether to carefully shift or cut back on cost (Rubin, 2015).

II.                Analyze the role of the government in correcting externalities and other market failures

 The Planning-Programming- Budgeting Systems redesigns the appropriation structure and the development of activity classifications, refinements in work measurement, productivity analysis, other types of output measurement, and the utilization of the Spring Preview for a broad look at programs and major issues (Schick,1966).  It is important for anyone contemplating work in the public sector to understand the unique and critical role that the government in the budget process sector must play in even the most vibrant of governments market economies (Mikesell, 2018). Nevertheless, collections from market transactions play an important role in government finance at the margin and their role is likely to continue to increase for reasons related to both political pragmatism and the quest for improved government efficiency (Mikesell, 2018). Although planning and management considerations were not altogether absent and indeed occupied a prominent role in the debates leading to the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, they were pushed to the side by what was regarded as the first priority, a reliable system of expenditure accounts (Schick,1966).

III.             Justify the use of taxpayer resources to correct externalities and other market failures

The governments regularly subsidize or taxes to try to correct market failures caused by externalities, for instance the government may pay producers or consumers of goods with positive externalities to encourage more consumption of the good in recognition of benefits to third parties (Mikesell, 2018). Many public projects, however, can create undesirable effects on others, or negative externalities, for examples, the damage done to surrounding properties by pollutants produced by a municipal incinerator and the traffic delays created when streets are blocked by construction of a government office building, cost inflicted parties outside the market transaction, but the cost is just as real to the society, it affects (Mikesell, 2018). It is not to be concluded that by excogitation a set of principles may be formulated on the basis of which the harassed budget official may devise an automatic technique for the allocation of financial resources (Key,1940). In turn, under the budget control process a refund or simply a return of the taxpayers’ money that the government collected in excess of the amount legally payable, whereas spending public funds to make payments will be given back once correctly budgeted (Rubin, 2015). Allocating and calculating the taxpayer’s reductions, Gramm Rudman introduced the concept of budgetary resources to describe the budget, entitlement, and borrowing authority on which outlays are based mandatory triggered reductions (Rubin, 2015). It maybe argued that for the best performance of individual public functions a high degree of stability in the amount of funds available year after year is desirable, and that the notion that there is, or needs to be, mobility of resources as among functions are erroneous, moreover, within the public economy, frictions principally institutional in character exist to obstruct and delay adjustments in the allocation of resources in keeping with changing wants probably to a greater extent than in the private economy, the more efficient utilization of resources would be promoted by the devising of means more accurately to measure the political strength of interests competing for appropriations (Key,1940).Whereas in performance budgeting, work and activities are treated as virtually within themselves, in program budgeting work and services are regarded as intermediate aspects in the process of converting resources into output funding this allows them to see how much of the future economic resources will be absorbed by current commitments and how much room is likely to be left for further expansion of public services, they can then agree on how and when to introduce new programs (Rubin, 2015). Strategic planning is the process of deciding on objectives of the budgeting organization, on changes in these objectives, on the resources used to attain these objectives, and on the policies that are to govern the acquisition, use, and disposition of these objectives (Rubin, 2015).

Biblical Understanding

“Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good” (Jeremiah 18:11 KJV).   “Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the Lord your God. Then the Lord will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you” (Jeremiah 26:13 NIV).

 

 

References

 

Fischer (2020). Presentation: Lesson 1 – The Functions/Role of Government and Budget Process [PowerPoint presentation]. Retrieved from http://www. learn.liberty.edu/webapps/blackboard/content

Key, V. O. (1940). The Lack of a Budgetary Theory, American Political Science Association, The American Political Science Review, Vol. 34, No. 6 pp. 1137-1144, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1948194

Mikesell, John L. (2018). Fiscal administration: Analysis and applications for the public sector. 10th ed. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. ISBN: 9781305953680.

Rubin, Irene S. (2015). Public budgeting: Policy, process and politics. New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN: 9780765616913.

Schick, A. (1966). The Road to PPB: The Stages of Budget Reform, Wiley on behalf of the American Society for Public Administration, Public Administration Review, Vol. 26, No. 4 pp. 2

The Holy Bible Jeremiah 18:11 KJV    

The Holy Bible Jeremiah 26:13 NIV

Willoughby, William F. (1918) The movement for budgetary reform in the states, Harvard University Law Library, New York; London: Appleton pp. 43-258 https://www.jstor.org/stable/973296