Final Project “Clinical” Style

The following document describes the final project assignment. The reason that it is given at the beginning of the semester is to give you enough time to think about the critical issues facing our budgeting and financial systems in the public sector and decide the one issue that you will study further. This project is expected to be completed with passion for public service, prudence for problem identification, and excellent analyses to suggest a path to solutions.
One key point is that the problem that you identify should be rather focused and clearly identified. One way to do that is to focus your study on a department/city/county/state/organization. The other way is to delineate the problem. We should use data to show a problem, and then analyze the environment in which budgeting takes place to suggest, based on our study of this issue, a few things in the hopes to improve fiscal discipline.

Project topic:
How has the debt level evolved in Los Angeles County and San Diego County, California? Do debt management practices matter?

Project write-up should have 8 to 12 pages of text (not counting tables, graphs, and/or charts that you should incorporate in your write-up), double-spaced, one-inch margins all around the pages, and in 12- point font.

The final project will be evaluated based on:
Whether the problem is clearly identified and stated? The problem must be relevant to this course. In other words, it relates to budgets/finances in the public sector.
Whether the proposed solution(s) are relevant and reasonable in a way that showcases your research efforts?
Whether the project uses financial/budgetary information, among other information, to support problem identification and proposed solutions mentioned above?

SAMPLE SOLUTION

In the recent past, all indications (through proven data or otherwise) have shown that there is uncertainty and a challenging financial system in most cities in the US most of which have tightened their policies to help find a clear financial trajectory through easement of debt levels. No matter the environment of regulation, most financial institutions in these cities have to stay the course to realize the anticipated changes. The current and the projected public financial debt level is meant to play a big role in the manner in which the economy is viewed. Public debt has to be defined as the cumulative result of budget deficits when the spending of the government is beyond the revenues collected (Lee, Johnson, & Joyce, 2012). This essay will be based on two counties, Los Angeles and San Diego, in terms of how the debt level has evolved over years in the two counties. Based on statistics, the debt levels will be given and the analysis used to set precedence of further studies in relation to financing in the public sector. Finally, the…