Budgets are pivotal when it comes to controlling and managing the government’s finances and achieving financial reporting objectives. In particular, the connection between budget preparation and financial planning highlights the crucial role of specific documentation in various governmental organizations. According to Miller (2017), when a financial plan is adopted by a unit of government, the budget reflects the activities prioritization, public choices regarding the unit’s good and services provided, objectives with regard to utilizing resources, and the influence of numerous participants and interest groups in the process.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss and evaluate the documents relating to Brevard County’s budget and finances, such as the chief executive’s budget message as well as the budget presentation and instructions.
The Chief Executive’s Budget Message
To begin with, it is necessary to discuss the importance and implications of the chief executive’s budget message. This term stands for a formal presentation explaining the goals and objectives with regard to the budget provided by an executive to a council (Miller, 2017). Within this paper, the budget message submitted by the county manager Frank Abbate (2020) will be analyzed. In particular, the overall tone in the document emphasizes the importance of the development of the fiscal year 2020-2021 adopted budget and highlights the primary challenges posed for the Brevard County Government, namely, by the COVID-19 global pandemic. The message maintains a professional, formal, and succinct tone, thus, setting a theme for the budget.
Within the Brevard County chief executive’s budget message, a number of priorities are mentioned. Abbate (2020) highlights the following foundational initiatives: “promoting inclusiveness and responsiveness; supporting critical public safety needs; addressing employee compensation, recruitment and retention with a continued focus on employee development …; preventative road and bridge maintenance, needed road reconstruction, and enhanced drainage efforts; continuing to address countywide infrastructure maintenance and repair needs” (p. 1).
Overall, the message provides a brief overview of the COVID-19 situation and efforts to consider and address the associated budget needs. Furthermore, budget highlights are discussed with regard to such aspects as budget development guidelines, employee retention, and compensation, infrastructure, fire assessment, the Save Our Indian River Lagoon Project Plan, transit services, and general government reserves (Abbate, 2020). Additionally, the budget summary is provided, along with the government highlights, financial composition, and budget by the agency.
In other words, Brevard County’s proposed balanced budget reflects the objectives and priorities of the organization and community in a fiscally responsible manner. As noted by Abbate (2020), the developing trends and upcoming organizational needs are considered, which allows the government to be strategically prepared for future budget needs. Hence, the plan aligns with the Board’s main objectives, priorities, and long-term fiscal strategy.
The Budget Presentation and Instructions
The budget presentation is another crucial aspect to be discussed within this paper. The Brevard County Florida Budget Presentation was located, and the adopted budget for the fiscal year 2020-2021 was identified for analysis. Overall, the documents provide information with regard to all Federal programs and agencies. Furthermore, archived budget presentations for previous years are available to the public up until the fiscal year 2016-2017.
The Brevard County adopted budget for the fiscal year 2020-2021 provides data with regard to the budget message and summary, general information, budget and financial policies, financial indicators and major revenues, summaries, departments, charter offices, court operations, outside agencies, debt service, capital improvement program, and appendices (“Adopted budget,” n.d.). The presentation for each agency explains what the agency does and offers information concerning mission statements, objectives, accomplishments, initiatives, trends, programs and funding sources, associated impacts, and major issues.
The Overall Evaluation of the Budget Presentation
Given the information presented in the above sections, my overall evaluation of the budget presentation is positive since the data is presented in a comprehensive and succinct manner, allowing the public access to the main governmental objectives and the associated resources allocation among agencies and initiatives. In particular, delivering a budget presentation is essential to gain confidence in the policy relevance and direction (Miller, 2017).
As to the Brevard County’s budget presentation, it meets the transparency standards and provides sufficient data with regard to the unit’s budget and financial policies, financial indicators and major revenues, departments, charter offices, court operations, outside agencies, debt service, and capital improvement program (“Adopted budget,” n.d.). Additionally, the areas of weaknesses could have been supplied in order to help the agencies address the problems and allocate resources in a sustainable manner. Overall, the adoption of the budget in the public sector involves a number of critical decisions made by the administrators and governing board, thus, culminating in the planning process that allows for meeting the unit’s current needs.
To summarize, the financial reporting system plays a pivotal role in demonstrating agencies’ compliance with the approved budget. The Brevard County’s budget and finances are evaluated for their effectiveness with regard to achieving the government’s stated goals and acute problems. It can be concluded that budgeting can be viewed as an essential component of financial data activity and process, resulting in the allocation of finite resources in accordance with the unit’s prioritized needs.
References
Abbate, F. (2020). Fiscal year 2020-2021 adopted budget. Office of the Brevard County Manager. Web.
Adopted budget fiscal year 2020-2021. (n.d.). Brevard County. Web.
Miller, G. J. (2017). Government budgeting and financial management in practice: Logics to make sense of ambiguity [eBook edition]. Taylor & Francis.