Budgetary Forecasting in Local Government: New Tools and Techniques.

• Author: Oria, Maria E.

Reviewed by Maria E. Oria, director of the office of management and budget for the City of Dayton, Ohio, and member of GFOA's Committee on Governmental Budgeting and Management.

This book is a thorough review of forecasting methods and is written in surprisingly simple language. For those of us who do not have a degree in econometrics, it is a useful source of information to determine the most effective way to forecast our financial future. Most forecasting books are geared toward academicians or specialists. The author takes the fairly technical, breaks it down to basic concepts and relates the technical to the generalist.

When you open the book, you are overwhelmed by the chapter and section titles. But once you get beyond the technical titles into the descriptions, definitions and uses of various techniques, the language is comforting. The examples given to illustrate the techniques are helpful in clarifying and expanding on the narrative.

I would recommend this book as an important tool for learning and understanding various forecasting techniques quickly and easily.

Budgetary Forecasting in Local Government is...