Budget Request Assignment
1. The Department of Revenue wants to add more people to the unit that attempts to collect unpaid taxes through telephone contact. As a budget analyst, what questions would you ask after you receive and review the following request? Be specific, look at the data carefully.
Subject: Collection Telephone Pursuit
Currently there are 19 employees working on telephone pursuits on a full-time basis. Each employee can make an average of 25 to 40 phone calls per day. The amount collected by the 19 employees for the past year is $17,858,623. If we could add an automated phone system and increase our staff by 10 full-time employees, we could double the number of phone calls made and increase our collections by 59 percent, or $8,900,000.
2. City Library Performance Measures (2007-2010)
|
Performance Measures
|
2007
|
2008
|
2009
|
2010
|
|
Materials in collection
|
43,937
|
46,464
|
46,000
|
55,000
|
|
Borrowers registered
|
35,544
|
38,089
|
41,093
|
43,247
|
|
Hours open per week
|
56
|
56
|
56
|
50
|
|
Book budget per capita
|
$1.05
|
$1.10
|
$1.15
|
$1.40
|
|
Library materials circulated
|
187,481
|
188,203
|
188,050
|
167,365
|
|
Patron visits
|
111,550
|
110,939
|
121,167
|
103,491
|
|
Annual customer satisfaction survey- # of respondents
|
1,500
|
1,348
|
1,256
|
1,243
|
Please refer to the above table and answer the following questions:
- 1 (a): What does the table tell us about performance of the city's library?
- 2 (b): In your opinion, what kind of performance information is useful in this table?
- 3 (c): How could these performance measures be used in budget decisions?