Balance or Bust

Community CongressMarch 27, 2004

Objective

• Your City Council Team must decrease spending (or increase revenue) by $2,000,000 by the end of the fiscal year.

Picture of board

• Team members consecutively roll the die and draw cards. Each card describes:– a service that can be cut or reduced, and – the amount of the savings

To Begin

• Pick a Mayor and a City Clerk– The Mayor is the group facilitator

– The Clerk keeps the record

Administration 3%

Comm. Dev. 9%

Other 15%

Council & Comm. 1%Administrative

Services 13%

Public Works 29%

Public Information 3%

Parks & Recreation 7%

Law Enforcement 20%

General Fund Expenditures$31,365,000

Non Department Squares

Grant Application Grant Award

Econ. Devel. Opportunity

Econ. Devel. Project Fails

Bad EconomicNews

Pot O’Gold

The Clerk keeps the record

City Clerk’s Ledger Sheet 

DEPT SERVICE TOTALOF PROGRAM

AMOUNTCUT

COMMENTS

Council

Commissioners’ dinner

 

$5,000 

$3,000Scale event down to a reception

         

         

Sample

Midyear Budget Adjustment

• Our Fiscal Year is July 1 to June 30. “Midyear” is January 1. When you reach January:– Stop and review your

ledger sheet– Are you going to reach

your goal?• After midyear – the cuts are only worth ½ as much

End of the Fiscal Year

• At the end of the fiscal year, the team will review the cuts and discuss what they learned about priorities for City spending.

• Your group’s “Mayor” will report back to the rest of the Congress on how well your team did:

1. What cuts did you make?

2. What cuts were the easiest or hardest to make?

3. How did the Team Council prioritize its spending?

4. What criteria did you use to make cuts?

5. What core values did your Council Team feel were important to the overall community?

6. What was the single most important thing you learned from this exercise?