Rock Hill Assignment

Rock Hill Assignment

Rock Hill, MO, is a municipality in St. Louis County in one of the inner ring suburbs of St.
Louis City. As of 2010, 4,635 people are living in the city that is roughly 1.09 square miles in
total area. It is surrounded by more affluent neighboring communities and is part of the Webster
Groves School District.
The city faces economic issues similar to those found elsewhere in the region. In some ways it is
more fortunate than some municipalities but in some other respects, it has some disadvantages.
For these reasons, it is a good subject for study.
Every government, local, state or the federal, has to budget. All governments, except the federal,
have to have a balanced budget. Rock Hill is no exception. Our assignment this year is to help
Rock Hill balance its budget but not only does the city have to balance the budget it must also
cut total spending from the previous year’s budget.
Introduction to Public Budgeting PPSG – 512 – G2 Spring 2016
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Rock Hill’s city administrator, Jennifer Yackley, will present a guest lecture in one of the early
weeks of class. She will provide a broad overview of last year’s budget and discuss what her
expectations are for the assignment. The whole assignment will consist of three brief memos and
a final PowerPoint presentation. The first memo will be due in week 6, the second will be due in
week 9 and the final memo will be due in week 11. Each memo should be around 300-350 words
in length. The final presentation should be in PowerPoint format, including your charts and
figures.
First memo: In 300-350 words, describe Rock Hill’s situation based on the city administrator’s
guest lecture and your own research. Take a big view of the situation, in other words, compare
where you think the city is today to where it was five years ago and where you think it will be
five years from now. How can the budget help to move the city where it needs to go? What are
some obstacles to Rock Hill’s progress? Is the city gaining or losing population? Are there more
older people than young people? Is the city’s racial profile likely to change or stay the same?

Second memo: Now is the time that you will start to take a closer look at the city’s budget. What
are the main components of the city’s spending? Revenues? What have been the long-term
patterns in the city’s spending and revenues? What do the spending patterns suggest in terms of
the city’s needs? Create a budget for Rock Hill where every thing is the same as last year except
costs rise by the rate of inflation.

Third memo: Rock Hill is a piece of the big puzzle that is the regional economy. In this memo,
you are to take a look at the drivers of the local and state economy. In other words, what are the
region’s and state’s biggest employers and economic sectors? You should also look at the
budgets in St. Louis County and the city of St. Louis. Are they growing? How fast? Now look at
the national economy. What is the prediction for the next 12 months for the U.S. economy?

PowerPoint Assignment: This is where you bring everything together. The memos have given
you the necessary background, now you have to do an analysis that you will share with the class
and a panel of professionals. Your task is to come up with a budget that is less than last year’s by
six percent. Where do you cut? Your analysis should include information on the city’s current
and future demographic trends, the regional and national economic outlook, and recent revenue
and expenditure trends in Rock Hill. You will have 15 minutes to present and 5 minutes to
answer questions from the panel.