The county government of Ann Arundel spends close to trillions of US dollars on its annual budget expenditure. The money is funded from the local taxes and finances all state departments’ needs in providing necessary services to the community. As such, analyzing the expenditure of Ann Arundel’s county departments and their financial allocation levels is crucial in planning the required financial disbursements to these spending units.
The departments with the highest resource allocations in Ann Arundel County include the educational, public safety and general government expenditure departments. Educational sector is associated with money disbursement close to 50% of the entire budget funds, while public safety section is allocated 20% of the entire state’s capital (Obima et al., 2016). The general government expenditure department assumes a third position in the local budgetary distribution, with public constructions unit consuming 10% of the county’s budget (Obima et al., 2016). In the educational department, the main expenditure categories include public schools and library infrastructures, as well as teaching and training services, which remain the major areas of the budgetary allocations.
In public safety field, healthcare services, police, and fire-fighting activities consume the crucial part of the financial resources allocated by the local government. The general government department, on the other hand, comprises of the sector of public works utilizing its highest budget allocation expenditure. It is then followed by the expenditure on community services comprising of 20% of total infrastructural funds teaching and training services (Hildreth et al., 2018). Such unequal budget allocations are attributable to the common financial constraints in Ann Arundel leading to the 2% reduction in the state’s fund allocation (Hildreth et al., 2018). To effectively reduce financial burden on local budgets, better strategies in the planning of fiscal policies should be considered.
In my view, managing budget deficit would require a reduction in expenditures associated with non-essential services in cutting the immense costs associated with interest payments (Mikesell, 2018). Such spending removes money from the local circulation that would financially empower residents. The local departments of Ann Arundel need to consider a financial planning that seeks to provide a prioritized money allocation to various expenditure departments. Such essential services as education, health, and public safety should be considered as key preference in availing funds to the larger public. These activities directly influence the economic empowerment of the residents by availing more capital into the local circulation.
References
Hildreth, W. B., Miller, G. J., & Rabin, J (2018). Handbook of public administration. (3rd ed.). Routledge.
Mikesell, J. L. (2018). Fiscal administration: Analysis and applications for the public sector (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth.
Obima, I., Pimental, I., Epey, K., Andrada, G., Anifowoshe, J., Bloch, P., & Wong, A. (2016). Consolidating Public Services in Anne Arundel County and the City of Annapolis: Impacts and Expenses. Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS). Web.