RESEARCH PAPER: FISCAL CONDITION ANALYSIS ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
OVERVIEW
Sound fiscal health is imperative to ensuring the effective operation of governments. Thus, governments should periodically assess their financial condition. Performing a financial condition analysis can provide governments with valuable information on the current and future state of their finances. The analysis can highlight potential fiscal problems and provide information necessary for corrective action. By taking action to address weaknesses and strengthen fiscal health, government can better ensure that resources are available to fund the level and quality of services expected by taxpayers.
INSTRUCTIONS
For this assignment you will write an 8-10-pages (not including title page, reference page, and any appendices). More specifically, you will need to:
1) Develop a fiscal condition analysis of Maumelle, Arkansas analyzing the most recent three-year revenue and expenditures data of Maumelle, Arkansas.
2) Utilize Excel Tools and charts to compute and create tables to create a fiscal condition analysis for Maumelle, Arkansas.
Your fiscal condition analysis will focus on the five (5) most important financial indicators for local governments:
• Total Revenues
• Property Taxes
• Sales Taxes
• Operating Expenditures
• Personnel Costs
To successfully complete this assignment, please refer to the Research Paper: Fiscal Condition
Analysis Assignment Guide.
This is research assignment designed to test your ability to carefully research, effectively organize, and concisely communicate a nuanced understanding of the concepts and issues raised in the assignment. While the minimum page limit is short (as is often the case in public policy/public administration briefings), you are expected to craft efficient, highly substantive papers. You are expected to comport with the highest writing, research, and ethical standards. Additionally, to do well on this assignment, you must conduct high-quality research and offer rich, well-supported analysis; mere opinion or conjecture will not suffice. There must be no careless or simple grammatical errors such as misspellings, incomplete sentences, comma splices, instances of faulty noun/verb agreement, etc. Such errors will result in significant point deductions.
The text of this research paper must be 8-10 pages (not including title page, reference page, and any appendices). This paper must be in current APA format with 1-inch margins and 12-pt Times New Roman font. You must also include a title page and reference page. You must include citations to a sufficient number of appropriate professional, scholarly, or other appropriate sources to fully support your assertions and conclusions (which will likely require more than the minimum number of citations); each paper must contain citations to the course texts book, assigned readings, and a minimum of 5 additional sources not including the course textbooks, assigned readings, and the Bible.
