"The Basics of Budgeting for Newly Elected Officials".

• Position: Review

McLain, Lewis F., Jr.

Texas Town & City, June 2000, Pp. 19, 22-25.

This article illuminates the budgeting review process that municipalities undertake each year. The author selects a council-manager backdrop for his discussion, but the ideas presented in the article transfer readily to numerous budgeting applications. The author describes, in turn, how to obtain municipal budgetary information, why separate funds are established to pay for differing aspects of a city's budget, how to properly understand tax revenue streams, why Tax Rate Equivalent (TRE) analysis is useful, why expenditure cuts should be considered with a healthy dose of caution, how term limits can affect decision making with regards to the budget, why it is...