Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

How To Lose $5.2 Million In Your Operational Budget And Still Make It Balance, Tamara Alexander

Certified Public Manager® Applied Research

Some cities experience exponential growth. Some cities experience operating budget shortfalls. Significantly few cities experience both simultaneously and are still able to balance their budgets for the upcoming fiscal year. This is the predicament a small municipality found itself in as it was forced to face unimaginable challenges at the beginning of fiscal year 2022. The operational budget shortfall could happen to any municipality and may have even happened to yours.

This article will explore what happened, how it was discovered, what was done to balance the budget, and what measures were put in place to prevent this from happening …