Essay Example: Rhode Island Budget

Who Does Revenue Forecasts for Rhode Island Budget?

The revenue forecasts for the Rhode Island budget is done by the "Office of Management and Budget." Under Rhode Island's law, the "Office of Management and Budget" is responsible for developing a five-year revenue forecast for the State (Justia U.S Laws, 2020). Further, it is mandated to providing the policymakers with current, historical, and projections of expenditures and revenues for Rhode Island's State. Additionally, it is responsible for the development of economic and revenue forecasts as well as analyzing, processing, and producing the budget recommendations including the Official Statements required for the issuance of the General Obligation Bonds and other debts (State of Rhode Island, 2020a).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Is it an executive branch or legislative branch agency, or consensus process?

The "Office of Management and Budget" is an executive branch under the Department of Administration. Currently, this office is headed by an executive officer by the name Thomas A. Mullaney under the title of Executive Director and State Budget Officer (State of Rhode Island, 2020a). This budget officer is appointed the Director of Administration as required by the Rhode Island General Law 35-3-1; however, the same law requires the appointment to be approved by the Governor (executive) (Justia U.S Laws, 2020). The officer works under the supervision of the Governor as required by the law (Justia U.S Laws, 2020).

Can you locate revenue estimates on any of your state's websites? If yes, what does it show you?

Yes. The revenue estimates can be located from the state's websites, in particular http://www.omb.ri.gov/budget/revenues/index.php. For instance, from the website, we can access the revenue estimates for the year 2016 and 2017 (see table 1 and 2) and which was done in November 2015 (State of Rhode Island, 2020b). This revenue estimates for the State of Rhode Island captured 6 key tax sectors, which are the personal income tax, general business taxes, sales, and use taxes, lottery, and other taxes not captured in the mentioned sectors. The estimates compared both the preliminary revenue for the 2015 financial year with the projected 2016 enacted financial year after which a consensus estimate was arrived at after factoring in a percentage change from enacted.

Do you think the analysis was reasonable, why or why not?

The analysis provided in the legislative fiscal note on the legislative fiscal office website is reasonable. This is particularly because it achieves the main purpose of a legislative fiscal note, which is by providing a thorough analysis of the impact of the proposed bill on the expenditures and revenue of the State if it becomes law. The analysis is based on statistical facts from surveys such as the Statista survey as a foundation. It also provides an in-depth analysis by examining various budgets that would be affected by the bill and at what percentage. Further, it examined the applicability of the Bill within the proposed dates. It also projected the impact of the bill on the State of Rhode Island's subsequent financial years, which were 2020, 2021, and 2022.

References

Justia U.S Laws. (2020). Rhode Island General Laws: US Codes and Statutes: US Law: Justia. https://law.justia.com/codes/rhode-island/

State of Rhode Island. (2020a). Home - Office of Management and Budget; Department of Administration. http://www.omb.ri.gov/State of Rhode Island. (2020b).

Revenues and Caseload - Office of Management and Budget. Retrieved from http://www.omb.ri.gov/budget/revenues/index.phpState of Rhode Island. (2020c). State of Rhode Island General Assembly. Retrieved from http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/housefiscalreport/Pages/Home.aspx