Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Evaluating Kentucky State Pension Plans In The 2000s And Best Practices Moving Forward, Sarah Alegria

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

The Commonwealth of Kentucky sponsors three different pension retirement systems. This includes Kentucky Employee Retirement System, Teacher’s Retirement System, and Kentucky’s Judicial Form of Retirement System. Kentucky has one of the worst funded pension retirement plans and is currently facing shortfalls of about $43 billion (PEW, 2013). Between 1998-2008, Commonwealth of Kentucky’s legislators made many detrimental policy decisions that negatively affected its Pension Retirement System. The most impacting includes:

• Enhancements of Benefits in the Nineties
• Changing Final Compensation from the average of five-years to the average of three-years
• Mandated Yearly Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA)
• Not requiring the State to …

An Analysis Of Mergers And Acquisitions In Non-Profit Organizations, Shakiyla K. Davis

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

This paper hypothesizes that poor planning of merger or acquisitions will lead to increased issues within the organization. To effectively examine the hypothesis, the paper provides an overview of mergers and acquisitions. The paper highlights the process and considerations of a merger and acquisition and uses examples to provide insight on successful and unsuccessful partnerships.

Analyzing The Presence Of State-Run Retirement Plans For Private Sector Employees, Ruthann Froberg

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

State-run retirement plans for non-covered private sector employees are a rapidly growing area of state policy. Since 2010, the majority of states in the U.S. have moved to either examine, enact, or implement these plans. This policy intends to increase private savings in an effort to reduce future reliance on public assistance and Social Security. Despite the current public policy interest, there is a lack of research evaluating the impact of plans or common state characteristics that are associated movement in this policy area. This capstone focuses on answering the latter question. Using state-level demographic, pension, welfare, and policy data, …

Analyzing Public Relations As A Strategic Management Function At Sec Universities, Whitney Harder

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

A changing higher education landscape – rising costs, competition and skepticism – coupled with a changing media and communications landscape – a 24/7 news cycle with fewer local journalists, new technology and the expectation of instant and constant communication – have pushed universities to try to become more effective and efficient in telling their institutional stories to multiple stakeholder groups. Institutional leaders are concerned about how higher education and their institutions present public value and communicate their impact on both the students they graduate and their communities. But how are they using public relations and communications to deliver solutions for …

The Effect Of State-Level Constitutional Debt Limitations On The Costs Of Capital, Micah Johnson

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Forty-five states have adopted some form of constitutional limitation on their own legislature’s ability to issue debt and raise capital. Eleven states have more than one such limitation. It seems intuitive to assume that constitutional strictures on a state’s ability to manage its fiscal policy would affect that state’s standing in the market, and it seems equally safe to assume that different combinations of the various forms of debt limitation would lead to varying effects in the market from state to state. However, the specific effects arising from the various constitutional provisions have proven to be difficult to measure. This …

Analysis Of The Performance Of The Korean Government’S R&D Subsidy For Small Businesses, Soonjae Kwon

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Investment in Research and Development (R&D) is one of the most significant governmental activities. Many countries including Korea continue the R&D investment in various fields such as defense, environment, and medical care. In addition, the Korean government has a plan to significantly expand R&D investment for small businesses because the growth of small businesses is considered as an important factor for economic development such as new job creation. Since the government budget is a finite resource in which various departments compete for the budget, the budget increase of a program can be justified when the government grants lead to better …

The Local Government Financial Response To Natural Disasters In Kentucky, Lucas Taulbee

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

This study seeks to estimate the effect of disasters on the total receipts and total spending of county governments in Kentucky. In addition to estimating the effects of disasters on total receipts and total spending, this study also seeks to estimate the effects of disasters on specific categories of revenue (taxes, intergovernmental, etc.) and spending (transportation, recreation, general government, etc.). These effects are estimated using data on county budgets for 2007 through 2017 from the Kentucky Department for Local Government (DLG) and data on disaster declarations and public assistance grants from FEMA.

The principle findings of this study suggest that: …

An Analysis Of Kentucky School Activity Fund Requirements For Internal Controls And Segregation Of Duties Compared With National Standards And Requirements In Surrounding States, Marla J. Carnes

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Across the United States, K-12 school systems receive and disburse a significant amount of funds at the school level. These funds are classified as school activity funds and may be broken into two distinct categories: 1) student activity funds and 2) district activity funds. Student activity funds are generally derived from fundraising activities of students to support a particular student group or organization such as the Y-Club, senior class, or student council. District activity funds are generated in the normal course of school business and may include funds such as locker fees, parking permit fees, school picture sales, or vending …