EACH STUDENT IS REQUIRED TO COMPLETE A PAPER, PUBLIC FINANCE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT, WHICH DEMONSTRATES EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION SKILLS, RESEARCH COMPETENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY FLUENCY.

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Each student is required to complete a paper, Public Finance and Local Government, which
demonstrates effective communication skills, research competence, and technology fluency. The
paper should demonstrate the ability to clearly communicate ideas in a professional manner and
tone. Research for the paper can be conducted using the UMUC library as a primary source, as
well as industry and trade references. The paper should be created using word processing and
other software programs to exhibit the student's ability to prepare technology-enhanced
documents and/or presentations.
Your paper should address following issues:
● How does local governments (here indicate state, county, city/township, or school
district) to finance and budget their capital for services? Are there any
guideline/law/regulation should be followed (references and citations are required)?
● What are major cash sources and major cash uses of the local governments (List top
five sources and top five uses of cash flows)?
● What do local governments do if there is significant budget surplus or deficit? Any
help from Federal government or Stata Governments to local government if the local
government/school district could not afford to provide basic public services such as
public school education to its residents? Provide an example.
● Does local government have right or restriction to levy or impose new tax if the deficit
occurs? If so, state the normal procedure or rules should be followed.
● The role of property tax.
● History and background of property tax for the local governments (here indicate
county, city/township, or school district). Provide an example.
● How were the property taxable values assessed and the property tax rates
determined? Is there any mechanism to adjust the property assessment value and the
property tax rate if there is dispute between property owners and local government?
Why different areas have different property tax rate?
● Summary and suggestions.

2. Note that interviews with Finance Officers and/or Tax Collectors of local government are
encouraged.
In terms of content, the paper should do the following:
1. Clearly state the issues being addressed.
2. Evaluate the position(s) taken in the article. Are there particular strengths or
weaknesses in the accompanying arguments?
3. What is your assessment, given the views in the article and other research
conducted? Conclusions need to be supported by solid analysis and logical
reasoning.
Paper Format Guidelines
● The paper should be between 12-18 pages, plus any appendices, exhibits, and
references, and prepared using word processing software. Total pages of 20-30 are
appropriate.
● The paper should consist of the following: Introduction/summary, analysis/critical
evaluation and conclusions. In addition to the primary article selected, the student
needs to perform additional research to support the analysis/critical evaluation portion
of the paper. At least ten sources should be included in the references of your paper.
● Appendices, exhibits, graphs, and other references may take the form of spreadsheet
and/ or PowerPoint inserts that demonstrate an understanding of technology tools
used in financial management and demonstrate student use of technology enhanced
presentations.
● Properly cited reference sources are required. These may include course material,
information from magazines, journals, and reliable online sources such as
government website.
● Please note that the APA writing style manual is no longer required. Instead, in the
Content area, there is a "Writing Resources" folder in the Course Resources module
with links to writing style standards to guide your writing. There is also a module in the
Content area titled Accessing Tutoring for Graduate Writing with instructions for
gaining access to writing tutoring assistance for your discussion papers. I urge you to
sign up for this resource and coordinate your draft discussion papers with tutors
before submission.
● Late papers will be penalized five points for each day after the due date.

3. Information on Data Sources (if needed)
Research for the paper can be--and is strongly recommended--to be conducted online using the
UMUC online library as your primary source. When you download from online library, do not use
abstracts, but use full-text articles: the pdf version typically prints out in the same format (e.g.,
exact page numbers) as the article appeared in the journal. You may find relevant and useful
information for your paper from the following UMUC library sources.
Business and Company Resource Center:
Industry rankings, financial data, and investment reports including company profiles, products
and brand information, investment reports, statistics, company financial overviews, financial
ratios, and business events and trends. Some sources from 1985 to the present.
Business and Industry:
Business, finance, strategy, planning, marketing, and international business journal articles from
1994 to the present.
Mergent Online:
This is an excellent database for research on company and industry information. In it you will find
data about United States and international companies, including history, business, property,
subsidiaries, officers, directors, long-term debt, bond ratings, capital stock, income statement,
balance sheet, statements of cash flow, exchange and ticker symbol, ratios, annual stock price
ranges, stock splits, dividend payment history and more. You'll also retrieve Edgar filings dating
back to 1993 and updated daily as well as industry reports on selected industries. A short tutorial
is at ​http://polaris.umuc.edu/~solson/mergent/Mergent_Excel.htm​ that you may want to share
with faculty and students if that is the type of information they need.
Here's additional information for library support:
● UMUC's department of ​Information and Library Services​ (www.umuc.edu/library/)
provides round-the-clock chat and e-mail reference services. Librarians are available
to take you through the actual steps of searching for information: logging in to a
database, entering search terms, and retrieving articles.
● UMUC's ​Library Databases and E-Journals​ website
(www.umuc.edu/library/database/) has been improved for easier access. A guide to

4. using UMUC's library databases is available
at​http://www.umuc.edu/library/database/articles.shtml​.
In addition to the above library data sources, you may also find useful financial information from
the following Internet Web sources. You may have to register for them (although they are free).
In no order of priority:
● Yahoo: ​http://finance.yahoo.com​;
● Reuters (Yahoo will refer you here): ​http://www.reuters.com​;
● Edgar (SEC source of 10-K and other required financial reports; this is my saved
"Favorite"):​http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/srch-edgar​; (EDGAR stands for Electronic Data
Gathering and Retrieval)
● Hoovers (general company information): ​http://www.hoovers.com​;
● Bloomberg (a good source of interest rate data):
http://bloomberg.com/markets/rates/index.htm​ ;
● Moody's (bond ratings): ​http://www.moodys.com​;
● Standard and Poors (bond ratings): ​http://www2.standardandpoors.com​;
● New York Stock Exchange: ​http://www.nyse.com/​;
● Bondpage (bond information): ​www.bondpage.com​;
● Federal Reserve (interest rates): ​http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h15/update/​;
● Bond Marketing Association (trade group) site: ​http://www.investingbonds.com​.