First, each student should obtain a line-item or a program budget for an agency/department, within a city, using the internet or by going to a local city and requesting a hard copy of the budget (see Appendix 1F & G in chapter 1). After you locate the budget, select an agency/department that you feel comfortable writing a budget proposal for a new activity or function. Make a copy of the first two pages of the agency/department budget and turn it in with the rest of your assignment.

Second, using the Original Budget Proposal Request Form, in Appendix 2B, which follows the same format as the example in Appendix 2A, determine how you (the Agency Director) can improve that agency/department by adding a new activity or function to the agency. For example, you could create a new Child Care Program within the Department of Human Services for the City of Jonesboro.

After you decide whether to add a new program or function to the agency/department, you should type your responses on the Original Budget Proposal Request Form using a word processing program. Remember, your job is to convince others that you have a good idea. So, sell the idea. You are limited to a maximum of $400,000.00 in your initial request.

Should your instructor decide to use the assignment in class, you will need to make additional copies of your proposal for use in class. In addition, you will need a blank copy of your proposal, which will be used to make changes to the original document.

Provide your instructor with a copy of the pertinent sections from the city or state budget that you retrieved, a copy of your Original Proposal Budget Request Form and your Revised Budget Proposal Request Form from the in-class portion of the assignment.

Again, if you are not completing the in-class portion of the assignment, you only need the Original Budget Proposal Request Form and the sections from the budget that you are adding to.

Step Two: In Class Games

As pointed out earlier, there are four main individuals/groups involved in the budget process. Hence, the class should be split into groups of four or five. If someone is left out, he or she can be assigned the role of a council member and added to any particular group. Each person in the group will defend his or her budget request from the role of agency head while the remaining group members will assume the other roles. Given what has been stated about each one of these actors in the text book, decide whether to approve each budget request.

The blank Revised Budget Proposal Request Formshould be used to make notes of any changes requested by your group members (See Appendix 2B). The original unmarked and revised budget request form should be turned in to the instructor at the close of class. Each agency director has a maximum of ten minutes to defend his or her budget request to the group and ten minutes to answer questions after the other actors have reviewed the budget request. When the time limit has expired, the three or four members will vote yea or nay to approving the budget based on the quality of the budget and the quality of the responses to the questions. Your grade is not determined by whether or not your budget is approved by your group, but by the quality of your work.11