Chapter 5 – Service Charges and Regulatory Fees
Reading: Pages 109-116 (end before: Policy issues in the adoption of service charges) and 121 – 125 (end before: Special tax districts).
Complete the following three assignments:
Assignment #1): What are the advantages of service charges and regulatory fees?
Assignment #2): What are the advantages of imposing impact fees to develops?
Assignment #3): As Fire Chief of the Springfield Fire Department, you want to raise new revenue through a special fee to offset costs of supplies used to mitigate hazardous material incidents which occur frequently at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant where Homer Simpson works. Mayor Quimby has requested a memo from you justifying this request. In your memo, specify what type of fee this would be considered and explain why the collected revenues should go directly to the hazardous materials program and not to the city of Springfields General Fund account.
The 9-1-1 Communications Center is located at the Las Vegas Fire & Rescue headquarters and dispatches for the City of North Las Vegas, City of Las Vegas, and Clark County. The funding percentages for both the operating and capital budgets in the new fiscal year are determined by the percentage of incidents in each jurisdiction in the previous calendar year. The current (approximate and rounded) funding percentages are as follows: Clark County (52%); City of Las Vegas (38%) and North Las Vegas (10%).
Please describe if you feel this is equitable. Provide arguments for and against this funding formula and should other factors be considered for each jurisdiction such as population, size in sq. miles, number of fire stations, number of firefighters, etc. Please provide as much detail as possible for all your answers.
Chapter 6 – Strategic Choices: Using Taxes for Economic and Political Purposes
Reading: Pages 142 (starting with “Tax incentives for professional sports and the arts”) to page 145 (end before: “Tax relief for citizens”) and page 100 (read only: “Local taxation of nonresident professional athletes’ earnings” (blue box article).
Complete the following two assignments:
Assignment #1): Mayor Quimby of Springfield wants to build a new baseball stadium for the Isotopes. What are the advantages for public financing and what can a new stadium do for local economic development?
Assignment #2): Let’s assume that Mayor Quimby’s new baseball stadium was completed for the Isotopes and ready for competition. Once the new season starts, should the city of Springfield consider charging all visiting sports professionals a tax because their salaries are being generated in the state where they are currently competing? (refer to p. 100) Is this something that can be applied to the NHL players playing against the Vegas Golden Knights and the NFL players playing against the Vegas Raiders?
Chapter 12 – Budgeting for Improved Performance
Reading: Pages 283 – 288 (end before Performance expectations and perceptions). Also page 291 (start at Benchmarking, (leave out pages 292-293,) page 294 to page 295 (end before Limitations to performance measurement).
Complete the following assignment:
Assignment #1): Using a corporate scorecard is vital to measuring how well your fire department is performing and holds you accountable for your management of resources. Using the format below, name ten various measurements within the fire department that as a future Fire Chief, you would like to see in a report on a weekly/monthly/quarterly basis (i.e. turnout times, keeping a structure fire to the room of origin percentage, etc.). You may elect to include other functions of fire services (training, fire prevention, etc.).
Function Goal Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Target
Operations 90% turn out time (first unit) 1:20
Chapter 2 – Revenue Choices: Principles to Guide the Manager
Reading: Page 29 to Page 38 (end before Choices that strengthen the local economy). Also read page 181.
Complete the following two assignments:
Assignment #1) Your book describes taxing powers, propriety powers, regulatory powers, and tax fairness. With those in mind, a fire department is constantly called to provide “lift assists” at a for-profit elderly care center. Here is the argument: should the fire department continue to provide these services at no charge because by charter, the department must provide emergency services to the community or should the fire department have the right to charge fees-for-services, especially for multiple or excessive responses? As a fire chief, what position would you take if the fire union complained about this issue citing response burnout?
Assignment #2): Your reading describes four revenue forecasting techniques. As a Budget Director, explain in your own words which technique you would choose to use in determining the projected future revenues? Justify your choice(s).
Textbook: A Budgeting Guide for Local Government, Fourth Edition, Bland & Ove
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