Overview
Your assignment for this week is to use the connection between values and budget as a way to think about the City of Norfolk, Virginia. I want to emphasize that I am not picking Norfolk because it is a particularly bad, or particularly good, set of values and budget. Rather, I am picking Norfolk because: 1) It is a very good example of a City that has done a commendable job of making information public and reasonably accessible. 2) It faces a series of particularly interesting complexities, which I hope will keep you interested. 3) It is small enough that it is feasible to wrap your heads around the issues through a bit of reading and research. 4) I know the City, and as such should be able to be helpful in answering questions. You have been provided with the City’s annual budget presentation, which is posted on Canvas. That document, plus the entire detailed budget (which runs to HUNDREDS of pages) are available through the website of the City’s Office of Budget and Strategic Planning: https://www.norfolk.gov/407/Budget-Strategic-Plann... In addition to the material on Canvas, you are encouraged to find publicly available data on the City’s demographics, politics, history, development, economy, and others matters that shape the budget. Indeed, the only way to be really thoughtful about the budget (and thus to do really well on this assignment) is to supplement the budget document with a broader perspective on what is happening in the City. I leave it to you to find these sources, and I ask that you provide a footnote or other source for data that you cite that is NOT provided in the budget summary on Canvas.
ASSIGNMENT AND QUESTIONS:
1) How would you describe the “Business Model” for Norfolk? How does the City earn money? How does it spend that money? How are those connected? What are the demographic, economic, social, or other conditions required to sustain that business model? 2) The “Business Model” of the City (i.e. how the City sustains itself financially) is not the same as the “Economy” of the City (what the people and companies in the City produce, what money they might generate, and where that money goes). Please describe the relationship you see between the City’s Economy and the City’s Business Model. Please be specific about policies on taxes, incentives, land use, or other matters, and describe how those policies relate to and connect both the economy and the business model (or, how they do NOT connect those items, if that is your perspective). 3) Given your answers to #1 and #2, identify three significant risks to the business model. For each of these risks, please discuss the extent to which the risk is within the control local government, and ways in which local government could be (or is) addressing those risks. 4) Provide a detailed analysis of your views on the connections (or lack thereof) between the City’s business model for economic sustainability and the capital investments highlighted in the budget plan. Please address each of these questions in 3-5 pages. Again, you may write in any format you wish (memo, research paper, etc.) and you should make sure that you address these four questions, but you should also feel free to address other issues that arise through your research and analysis. You should provide detailed examples to support your perspective, noting particular aspects of budget(s) and public policy, and how they relate. As noted, I expect that you will range outside of the single budget summary to answer these questions, but there is a great deal of publicly-available information on Norfolk’s budget, economy, demographics, and other items.