The Planner’s Parallax presents “A Tale of Two Budgets,” a four part series aiming to explore how different systems of government administration might influence a community’s development. Plans are nice but budgets are where the rubber meets the road. That is to say that municipal budgets are the ultimate statement of goals and priorities. Therefore, its time to take two comparable communities to task by putting their budgets to the test. The four parts of A Tale of Two Budgets are:
- Part One: Distant but Familiar, The Dalles versus Meadville – A Profile
- Part Two: Financial Resilience – Setting Up the Test
- Part Three: Battle of the Budgets
- Part Four: What about the Average Person
Part One explores the basic geographic, environmental, and economic conditions present in each community. We’ll explore recent population changes, the spatial distribution of jobs and workers, and describe how these cities have arrived at their current state of affairs. The second installment in this series will set up a variety of different “tests” derived from budgetary analysis. Doing so will attempt to answer questions about financial efficiency and the value that taxpayers receive from their respective local governments. Part Three will bring the excitement of our budgetary battle. Insightful budgetary metrics will be revealed through infographics that are often excluded from ordinary budget presentations. Finally, the last part of this series will attempt to answer what all of our earlier exploration actually means for the average person in each community.
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Each part of this multi-part series will be released intermittently with unrelated post published in-between parts. Consider subscribing to our newsletter to receive an announcement when the next part of the series, and other articles, are published. Part One will be published soon!