Maryland Budget Assignment

This final role-planing assignment asks you to give confidential budget advice to the major candidates in the next gubernatorial election: Governor Ehrlich, Mayor O'Malley, and County Executive Duncan.  You will sign up on 11/29 for your role on a candidate's task force.  The assignment is designed as a "capstone," meaning that you should integrate relevant ideas that you have learned throughout the course.

Task Force Report Contents

Each task force will produce a report that should have the following sections:

1. Executive summary.

2. A description of the budgetary position of the state.

3. A rough estimate of how the federal government's budget policy may affect the state over the next few years.

4. Separate sections on the budgetary proposals the candidate should make in the following policy areas:

    the Chesapeake Bay;
    economic development;
    mass transit funding;
    substance abuse treatment; and
    other areas that you would like to highlight.

Each of these sections should include analyses of selected performance measures currently used in these areas, and if possible, suggest specific efficiency savings.

5. An analysis of the effect of these recommendations on the budgetary position of the state, and a list of options for financing any additional spending, including tax increases.

Since each task force will have 10-11 members, it is especially important that all students fully participate.  I will ask those students who now carry the highest grades in the course to serve as task force leaders; if they would rather not do this, I will ask other students, based on their performance in the class.

Each task force report should begin with the following notice: "This page was prepared for a class assignment, and does not represent the official position of the (fill-in) campaign."

Procedure

The class will meet in ECS 122A on 11/29 and 12/1, 6 and 8.    Each task force must produce a report in web page format (html) by the end of class 12/8.

Class time in ECS will be spent doing web research and writing, and sharing information within each task force.  I will be available during each class for advice on sources, on web composing using Netscape Composer, and on policy and politics.

Your reports should emphasize substantive content--both policy and political advice--over bells and whistles like Javascript and extensive picture graphics.  In other words, basic pages written using Front Page or Composer will do--though if you happen to know how to use Dreamweaver or a similar application, go ahead.  Links to relevant documents should be embedded.  Extensive length is a disadvantage--remember, you are writing this for a busy candidate.  Quality analysis and tight writing are especially desirable.

As you draft your report, your group should post preliminary versions to the web, giving an opportunity for other members of your task force to assist in its development.  UMBC's computer experts give advice on writing web pages at:  http://www.umbc.edu/oit/webdev/index.html.  See in particular their advice on uploading to the W: drive--it's easy.

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Final assignment:

We will meet in the regular classroom on 12/13, the last day of class.  By this class, you should read each task force report, and then bring a 2-page analysis of the reports.  



Your analysis should identify advice given to the opposing candidates that you believe makes them electorally vulnerable.  Then you should identify advice you have given to your candidate that your opponents might use to make your candidate electorally vulnerable.  One of several possible approaches is to ask: Are any of the claims made in these reports demonstrably false, and would they be seen that way by undecided voters?

You should append to your analysis a brief description of your contributions to your task force's report.

In class I would like us to discuss what you wrote, and the following questions:

Why did the Spending Affordability Committee recommend a 8.9% increase in spending?

Does the current budget situation help one candidate more than the others?

To what extent did you change your advice when you saw the advice to your opponents?  If you made any changes, were they to blame the other candidates?  Claim credit for your candidate?  Or?

Are there any significant areas of budgetary agreement between the candidates?  What are their major disagreements?

In what different ways did you use performance measures?  How might the availability of performance measures affect your candidate's campaign?

Do you think the state will have a budget deficit two years after the election?

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There is a wealth of information available for this project.  Stick to written sources--don't call anyone.  And remember that you will be held to the traditional standards for plagiarism.

To begin your research, start with links on these pages:

http://userpages.umbc.edu/~meyers/linkmdstatebud.htm

Especially helpful sources linked from the above page will be the Governor's budget request for FY2006, and the MD General Assembly site--look particularly at the "90 Day Report" from last session.

http://userpages.umbc.edu/~meyers/linkambud.htm

http://userpages.umbc.edu/~meyers/linkampol.htm

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