Dollar Budget Research Articles

An indefensible budget

If a half-trillion dollar military budget lands on Capitol Hill and no one seems to hear, does it make a sound? You bet.

From the IMGL: Remake/Remodel: Renegotiate, Recall, Resign? Tribal Gaming in California—2003

THIS SUMMER FINDS California in turmoil with an apparently successful recall effort against extremely unpopular Governor Gray Davis almost certain to go to the voters, lawsuits filed by gaming tribes against the state, and Governor Davis in the midst of tribal/state compact renegotiations. Complicating the renegotiations are the ill-advised statements made by Davis earlier this year where he stated he expected tribes to supply 1.5 billion dollars of the state’s 35 billion dollar budget shortfall. Davis has shown a marked inability to govern, appearing to be interested only in raising money for his re-election campaigns and fighting the recall effort against him.

The Effects of Policy on Enrollment in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children

This study’s aim is to determine effects of policy variables on enrollment in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) using a framework for the study of access. Secondary analysis of 1994 data from public documents and agencies for the 50 states was conducted. Independent variables were ratio of the federal WIC grant to the eligible population, state supplementation of WIC, administrative and food dollars per person, WIC population per clinic, and WIC priority categories served. The dependent variable was the eligible WIC population enrolled. State supplementation of the WIC budget, administrative and food dollars per person, cost of living, population density, population distribution, and ratio of the federal WIC grant to the eligible population accounted for 85% of variance in WIC enrollment. Policy recommendations include reorienting the federal funding formula toward incentives for enrollment, state supplementation of WIC, and examination of administrative and food costs.

Leverage on Learning: Test Scores, Textbooks, and Publishers

Teachers and administrators who are concerned about improving student achievement often overlook a crucial factor: curriculum materials. The authors supply the information educators will need -- including tips on negotiating with publishers -- to select the most appropriate materials and to maximize budget dollars. SARAH Johnson frowned at the newspaper article comparing the achievement test scores of schools in the three-county area. pressure is all we need, the associate superintendent mused. This will dominate the agenda at the next board meeting and generate more complaints from parents and taxpayers. Like school leaders everywhere, Johnson is searching for effective ways to respond to the demands for better student performance. In the meantime, she may have overlooked the leverage on the teaching and learning process that can be gained from the acquisition of new curriculum materials. Whether their concern about student growth and achievement stems from their professional ethos or is spurred by the pressure of accountability, many school leaders -- teachers, principals, and central office administrators alike -- sorely feel the need for such leverage. Even in cases where educators recognize the pivotal role of curriculum materials, their lack of understanding of the role of publishers may undermine the processes of selecting and purchasing curriculum materials. Here, we explore the importance of this process and suggest a strategy for working effectively with publishers of school curriculum materials. We offer recommendations to make it more likely that the new curriculum materials that your school district acquires will result in higher scores on achievement tests. The annual purchase of textbooks and curriculum materials is among the most direct ways of influencing assessment outcomes. Yet, when we ask participants in our university educational leadership classes, many of whom are teachers and principals, to tell us what they can do to improve student achievement, the most frequently heard responses include offering various forms of staff development, allocating more resources to early education, reducing class size, and aligning the curricula with assessments. Seldom does anyone mention purchasing new materials. The purchase of new curriculum materials presents an opportunity for school leaders to exercise considerable leverage on student learning. Moreover, the acquisition of materials is much simpler and more direct than other ways to improve student learning. The materials can be changed relatively quickly, with little time lag between decision and implementation. Efforts to change other factors -- among them facilities, student grouping, scheduling of time, and teacher knowledge, skill, and commitment -- are far more complex and usually require much longer to take effect. There is another reason to pay special attention to purchasing curriculum materials: big money is involved. When expenditures for all items used in K- 12 schools in the U.S. -- from pencils and textbooks to computers -- are tallied, the annual total runs to an estimated $140 billion.1 Expenditures on textbooks and other curriculum materials not only represent a great deal of money in the aggregate, but they also account for a large proportion of discretionary spending in the school budget. Matching curriculum materials to the learning needs of students ensures that scarce budget dollars are not wasted. Much More Than Content Textbooks and curriculum materials provide detailed structures for classroom activity, simplifying the many decisions involved in planning for learning. They are the main source of lesson content in many classrooms, and, through teacher guides and other supplementary materials, they strongly influence how content is taught. Indeed, textbooks and supporting curriculum materials are the de facto curriculum in many schools and classrooms. …

Disaster Recovery

The events of September 11 focused the information technology community on business continuity and disaster recovery planning. In the days and weeks following the attack, many IT organizations assessed their infrastructures and allocated a larger portion of their 2002 budgets to continuity planning and disaster recovery. Most of those organizations will spend the new budget dollars on infrastructure upgrades and to projects that will bring increased redundancy.

Finding the right balance: campus involvement in the collections allocation process

Many libraries have sought the best approach to allocating the collections budget. “History plus increment” is the standard for many libraries in the allocation of any new dollars to collections budgets. Other libraries have identified factors that help make the process of disbursing new money more objective including counts of faculty and students, literature size and costs, and program changes on campus. The Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is striving toward a more open and understandable allocation process that uses an allocation formula, professional judgment of its librarians, and input from campus faculty and administration. Through this process, we work to achieve balance between formula and professional judgment, between decisions made outside the Library and within the Library, between competing disciplines and old and emerging fields for budget dollars.

Want Energy Conservation? Try Incentive

ABSTRACTThis paper will prove that a monetary incentive approach to achieve energy conservation works. With the recent rise in energy costs because of the acts of oil producing foreign counties, this subject is very timely.The objective of U.S. Navy shipboard energy conservation is to make ships more fuel efficient to help stretch the fuel budget dollars as far as possible and also make ships more environmentally friendly. This goal has been the cornerstone of machinery and hull R&D and Fleet operational improvements. In support of this quest, the NAVSEA incentivized Energy Conservation (ENCON) program has been established, which focuses upon Fleet and ship operational improvements.This paper will provide brief discussions on the incentivized ENCON Program, program elements, and suggestions to institutionalize a similar program for ships operated by the Military Sealift Command, U.S. Army, U.S. Coast Guard, and National Oceano‐graphic Atmospheric Administration. A similar incentivized ENCON program can also be implemented for friendly nations' naval ships. It is also believed that commercial shipping companies can use the incentive concept to operate their ships more efficiently.

Directions in Canada's International Security Policy

INTRODUCTION: DEFENCE AND SECURITYFor some time now, Canadians have not been overly concerned about national defence.(f.1) They have felt no threat of imminent invasion; they have not seen their core values or institutions under challenge by some foreign, or even some domestic, force; they have not been coerced into domestic or foreign policies inimical to their preferences.(f.2) Indeed, the idea of national defence seems to be of decreasing relevance to most Canadians, except for the perception by some that the movement for Quebec sovereignty directly challenges Canadian security.(f.3)But that does not mean that there has been no activity in this sector of public life. Since 1993 a series of government documents has emanated from the House, Senate, and the Departments of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) and of National Defence (DND);(f.4) parliament has convened hearings; and the informed public has offered its assessments of foreign and defence policy.(f.5) To this list can be added the special reports commissioned to address specific concerns, including the Reserves, the Somalia Inquiry, maritime and naval issues, United Nations rapid reaction capability, procurement matters such as fixed wing and helicopter aircraft and conventionally powered submarines, the military justice system, and the 'quality of life' concerns of the families of members of the Canadian Armed Forces. What animates many of these efforts is a need to reorganize, reform, and refocus the Canadian military in the post--cold war world and to relocate it within Canadian society.Both DFAIT and DND undertook internal assessments in the late 1980s of their respective capacities to formulate and implement policies attuned to the dramatic changes unfolding during the period, especially around East-West relations. Already, then, some analysts in Ottawa and in the academic community were keenly aware of the need to rethink their ideas about international security.(f.6) But even with well informed reviews and reports, the analyses and sentiments have still not been codified or consolidated into an overall strategic view of Canada's place in the world of war and peace. This is not the place to pursue the larger issue, but it is worth noting that, in spite of much effort by people within and outside of official circles, no single statement or document clearly articulates for Canadians what it means today to have a professional Canadian Armed Forces. Why should a significant, albeit decreasing, proportion of the government's budget and taxpayers' dollars go towards maintaining a military force?(f.7)From Bosnia and Kosovo to Chechnya, the Great Lakes Region to Sierra Leone, Afghanistan to Sri Lanka, and Algeria to the Gulf, the use of organized force does not seem to have diminished. Enduring rivalries and protracted conflict and violence, whether intra- or interstate, are indicative of both the continuing utility and the perverse misuse of military force. It is equally obvious that none of these or, for that matter and to our good fortune, any other example directly threatens Canada - or at least only so far as it offends Canadian values and, for some, Canadian interests. Canadians and their government make that determination. For reasons ranging from the normative to the instrumental, they present these activities in ways that link Canadians to the event or to the outcome. These are not, in and of themselves, national defence concerns, though they are issues that are potentially within the mission and mandate of the Canadian Armed Forces.Of course, some analysts have perceived palpable threats to Canada or to Canadian interests in a number of recent cases: fish and maritime zones on east and west coasts; Arctic issues; questions about the penetration of Canada by non-Canadian cultural forces, which are at least as relevant as they were thirty years ago; and who really controls the economy. The same issues, with their own particular colour, inform much of the nationalist debate around Quebec and federalism. …

‘New Security’ in Cyberspace: Emerging Intersection between Military and Civilian Contingencies

From the outset, the emergent national and transnational networks of automated, inter‐connected information systems were expected to create beneficial communities. Unfortunately, unpleasant contingencies more like those of turbulent urban environments have emerged in the undesired challenges to individual and group security from these spreading global and critical networks. The ‘netted’ nations of the West are acting more like global neighbouring cities in their increasingly similar social burdens and competition for resources seeping across real and virtual borders. At the same time, with the rise of both wider global networks and highly‐Webbed military technology, the global military community is developing new, broader notions of the contingencies for which they must be prepared. In this process, on‐going since the Gulf War of 1991, millions of defense research and acquisition budget dollars have been, and continue to be, aimed at solutions for these newly perceived broadening responsibilities.The surprising result is a growing intersection between the capabilities being sought and developed in the most modern of militaries, the services of the US, and the emerging needs of the wider civilian community in meeting new contingencies. This article discusses this growing intersection in meeting internet‐borne societal threats or in applying internet‐enabled responses to intentional or unintentional social disruptions. While these trends are largely seen, today, in the US military and society, they portend similar possible developments around the globe. Not only is the US currently defining the dominant notions of a ‘modern’ military, it is also the incubator nation for global notions of a computerized society

MULTI-PLAN-HOLDER EXERCISES: A COST-EFFECTIVE PREPAREDNESS APPROACH

ABSTRACT Facilities, vessels, and pipelines regulated under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90), whether owned by a major international corporation or a small local company, face organizational and technical difficulties in their efforts to comply with the Preparedness for Response Exercise Program (PREP). Response exercises are but one priority competing for the plan holder's time, personnel, and budget dollars. Operators typically lack the in-house expertise and staff to design and conduct effective exercises or to budget dollars to contract for outside support. These problems could adversely affect the plan holders and impact their ability to work within a unified command during a spill. This paper discusses the obstacles to maintaining an adequate level of preparedness through traditional exercises and describes a cost-effective, innovative approach to exercises. By working with other plan holders in the area to conduct a combination workshop and exercise for each participating company, each operator can reduce costs, improve the value of exercises, and exercise facility plans in a unique and highly focused manner. The paper discusses the key issues of designing scenarios for each plan holder in a multi-plan-holder exercise while maintaining the focus of the workshop, the value to the predesignated on-scene coordinator, and the synergistic effects of plan holders learning from one another.

A Continuing Education Program to Upgrade Knowledge and Skill Levels of Professional Natural Resources Staff

Continuing education is both costly and a special event for public agencies. Too often participants in continuing education programs do not believe they can easily implement new knowledge and skills gained through these programs. And, agency administrators, who often report little change in job performance or satisfaction after participants return from these programs, wonder if they should continue to allocate shrinking budget dollars for continuing education. The authors, working with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, developed and carried out a series of six 2-wk continuing education courses during the fall 1990 through winter 1994 time period. The course covered a variety of timely natural resource topics. The course format was varied to respond to the diversity of issues addressed and to the variety of learning styles participants would bring. Course effectiveness and success were measured through a four-part evaluation given before the course, during the course, immediately after the course and 6 mo after the course. Evaluation findings suggest participants and the agency viewed the course as effective and successful. As a result of their participation in the continuing education courses, participants exhibited increased employee self-confidence, expanded communication networks among employees, more timely implementation of new ideas and concepts throughout the agency, and more consistent and informative presentations to the public. These changes in the employees' behavior will have significant impacts on the agencies and those they serve.

A case study of resources management planning with multiple objectives and projects

Each National Park Service unit in the United States produces a resources management plan (RMP) every four years or less. The plans commit budgets and personnel to specific projects for four years, but they are prepared with little quantitative and analytical rigor and without formal decision-making tools. We have previously described a multiple objective planning process for inventory and monitoring programs (Schmoldt and others 1994). To test the applicability of that process for the more general needs of resources management planning, we conducted an exercise on the Olympic National Park (NP) in Washington State, USA. Eight projects were selected as typical of those considered in RMPs and five members of the Olympic NP staff used the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to prioritize the eight projects with respect to their implicit management objectives. By altering management priorities for the park, three scenarios were generated. All three contained some similarities in rankings for the eight projects, as well as some differences. Mathematical allocations of money and people differed among these scenarios and differed substantially from what the actual 1990 Olympic NP RMP contains. Combining subjective priority measures with budget dollars and personnel time into an objective function creates a subjective economic metric for comparing different RMP’s. By applying this planning procedure, actual expenditures of budget and personnel in Olympic NP can agree more closely with the staff’s management objectives for the park.

SERIALS DUPLICATES EXCHANGE PROGRAMS: COSTS AND BENEFITS

Libraries undertake many activities to stretch budget dollars and “get more for less,” enhancing their collections at the least cost. In some instances, these programs also are seen as having the potential to generate revenues for the library. Serials duplicates exchange programs are one example of this type of activity. Often, the duplicate exchange is viewed as a cost‐effective mechanism for acquiring wanted back issues of serial titles. Libraries offer their duplicates or discards to exchange partners and receive journal issues they may be lacking. Money does not change hands, and all participants appear to benefit. On the surface, this activity appears to be a cost‐free mechanism for swapping excess materials for needed ones. A concern about postage increases and the cost of shipping materials to exchange partners prompted the Pennsylvania State University Libraries to evaluate its serials duplicates exchange program. This cost study documented the actual cost to maintain a duplicates exchange program and provided an opportunity to examine these costs in relation to the benefits derived from the program. The following is a summary of the method used to analyze the costs and benefits of the serials duplicates exchange program at Penn State, as well as the results of the study.

How to Compete for Budget Dollars by Privatizing the Tree Care Operation

Contracting the municipal tree care operation can generally handle specialized tasks more efficiently. It offers greater managerial/technical expertise. Contractors have the ability to manage their workforce more effectively. They can respond to crisis situations more rapidly and can downsize when no longer needed. Contracting only works well when it is functioning under properly trained customer supervision, well written specifications, good contract administration, competition and honesty.

The Maryland Biotechnology Institute

The manufacturing industry that has driven much of Maryland's economic progress is regressing. Financial service firms are in decline. Real estate, once a producer of wealth, is in a slump and is unlikely to return to its former grandeur. The governor and legislators are trying to fix the state's billion dollar budget deficit. In this otherwise gloomy situation, the success of the state's life science development strategy stands out. Maryland is the home of 53 dedicated biotechnology firms, more than all other states except California and Massachusetts. State economic development officials estimate that biotechnology-related jobs in the state will grow from 4,000 to more that 70,000 in the next ten years.

Book Notes

Anderson, Odin W (1985) Health Services in the United States A Growth EnterpriseAverch Harvey A 1985 A Strategic Analysis of Science and Technology PolicyBaughrman, James L 1985 Television's Guardians The FCC and the Politics of rogramming, 1958–1961Brown, Eugene J 1985 William Fulbright Advice and DissentBunker, Stephen G 1985 Underdeveloping the Amazon Extraction, Unequal Exchange, and the Failure of the Modern StateCofer, Donna Price 1985 Judges, Bureaucrats, and the Question of Independence A Study of the Social Security Administration Hearing ProcessCommittee for Economic Development 1985 Investing in Our ChildrednCorson, William R and Robert T Crowley 1985 The New KGB Engine of Saviet PowerDaniel, Pete 1985 Breaking the Land The Transformation of Cotton, Tobacco, and Rice Cultures Since 1880Davis, Karen and Diane Rowland 1985 Care Policy New Directions for Health and Long‐Term CareDowns, Donald Alexander 1985 Nazis in Skokie Freedom, Community and the First AmendementDurant, Robert F 1985 When Government Regulates Itsself EPA, TVA, and Poliution Control in the 1970sFerman, Barbara 1985 Governing the Ungovernable City Political Skill Leadership, and the Moder MayorGray, Charies L. Jr and Jeffrey A Alson 1985 Moving America to Methanol A Plan to Replace Oil Imports, Reduce Acid Rain, and Revitalize Our Domestic EconomyJones, Bryan D 1985 Governing Buildings and Building Government A New Perspective on the Old PartyLane Jan‐Enk ed 1985 State and Market The Politics of the Public and PrivateLaqueur, Walter 1985 A World of Secrets The Uses and Limits of IntelligenceLayton, Edwin T (Rear Admiral U S N Ret) 1985 And I Was There Pearl Harbor and Midway‐Breaking the SecretsLuttwak, Edward N 1985 Pentagon and the Art of WarMacRae, Jr. Ducan 1985 Policy Indicators Linds Between Social Science and Public DebateMurphy, Jolhn F 1985 Punishing International Terronsts The Legal Framework for Policy InitiativeOseth, Jarnes M 1985 Regulating U S Intelligence Operations A Study In Definition of the National InterestPascall, Glenn 1985 The Trillion Dollar Budget How to Stop The Bankrupting of AmericaPercy Stephen L and Enc J Scott 1985 Demand Processing and Performance in Public Service AgenciesPeterson Paul E, ed 1995 The New Urban RealityReichley A James 1985 Religion in American Public LifeRhoads Steven E 1985 The Economist's View of the World Governments. Markets, and Public PolicyRose, Richard ed 1985 Public Employment in Western NationsSharp, Gene 1985 Making Europe Unconquerable The Potential of Civilian‐Based Deterrence and DefenseShotland, R Lance and Melvin M Mark eds 1985 Social Science and Social PolicyStaniland, Martin 1985 What is Political Economy? A Study of Social Theory and UnderdevelopmentSwanstron, Todd 1985 The Crisis of Growth Politics Cleveland, Kucinich, and the Challenge of Urban PopulismWeeks, Lewis E and Howard J Berman 1985 Shapers of American Health Care Policy An Oral HistoryWilson, James Q and Richard J Herrnstein 1985 Crime and Human Nature

Accountability: Assessing student outcomes for budget dollars

Accountability: Assessing student outcomes for budget dollars

The Trillion Dollar Budget: How to Stop the Bankrupting of America.Glenn Pascall

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsThe Trillion Dollar Budget: How to Stop the Bankrupting of America. Glenn Pascall Neil SnortlandNeil Snortland Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Politics Volume 48, Number 3Aug., 1986 Sponsored by the Southern Political Science Association Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/2131206 Views: 2Total views on this site Copyright 1986 Southern Political Science AssociationPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Pascall Glenn, The Trillion Dollar Budget: How to Stop the Bankrupting of America. (with a chapter on ‘The Fiscal Collision’ by Dayna Hutchings), Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1985, 328 pp. $19.95 hard, $9.95 paper.

Pascall Glenn, The Trillion Dollar Budget: How to Stop the Bankrupting of America. (with a chapter on ‘The Fiscal Collision’ by Dayna Hutchings), Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1985, 328 pp. $19.95 hard, $9.95 paper.

Subscriptions vs. Books in a Constant Dollar Budget

Subscriptions vs. Books in a Constant Dollar Budget