Budgeting takes place at every level in public organizations, from projects through offices and departments, to whole governments. In all of these cases, budgets are tools in aid of resource allocation, planning and management, not merely lists of numbers. The course will cover both purposes and techniques of budgeting and will also cover elementary budgetary literacy – reading and writing budgets. Students will be required to develop budgets at the project level, as well as to examine or develop budgeting strategies at higher levels of public organizations. There will be homework and group projects, and possibly a quiz or two. This will be a one credit mini-course, that will meet 4 times.
