In next week’s assignment, you will be locating and analyzing budget information for a selected program or department in your local government. Navigating government website to find the information you need can be very challenging. Here is an example of where you might find the information for one local department, the Montgomery County, Maryland Department of Health and Human Services.

1. Go to the Montgomery County Government, Maryland website.
2. Select Government. 
3. Select Departments. 
4. Select Health and Human Services.
5. Select Publications and Reports at the bottom of the page.
6. Select the report you want to view.

Other related budget websites for the Montgomery County, MD Department of Health and Human Services:

The web sites for your locality will be different, but this example gives you an idea of things that you might search for to get the information you need for your assignment. 

 Below is the recording to Wednesday’s webinar regarding Assignment 

Link to the recording: https://cdnapisec.kaltura.com/index.php/extwidget/preview/partner_id/956951/uiconf_id/43830551/entry_id/1_2czgrp5b/embed/dynamic

Link to the anonymous student feedback survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KR68N5D

 You are preparing for a challenging City Council meeting. You need to be able to give the other council members and the mayor an accurate state of affairs to make sure significant cuts can be made in the appropriate areas, and other critical areas can continue to be funded. Select an agency or a program from your local city to analyze the financial plan to respond to the following questions in a 4–5 page paper:

1. Evaluate a budget or financial plan of your local city agency or program. Title this section Financial Plan.
2. Propose one issue for improvement for the budget or financial plan of the agency or program. Title this section Improvement.
3. Develop a budget proposal for the improvement issue. Title this section Budget Proposal.
   • Justify your recommendations.
4. Distinguish the similarities and differences between the federal, the state, and the local budget submission process. Title this section Federal, State, and Local Submission Process.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Include a short introduction that addresses background information of the agency or program information and use the questions as section headers.
• Please include at least four references; at least two references must be peer-reviewed.
• Include the URL of the location of your city’s financial plan and any other documentation you used for your budget analysis.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
• This course requires the use of Strayer Writing Standards. For assistance and information, please refer to the Strayer Writing Standards link in the left-hand menu of your course.

The specific course learning outcome associated with this assignment is:

• Evaluate an existing budget and justify its recommendations.