O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs - Idealist

Introduction

F 610 builds on F 560 Public Finance and Budgeting. We will cover concepts, procedures, practices, and politics of governmental budget preparation, justification, presentation, and review. The focus will be on budgeting expenditures at the local level. The lessons apply to all levels of government, as well as nonprofits. Our goal is to master budgeting as it is practiced, including the role of the budget professional working in a political environment. My teaching approach is from a practitioner's perspective: What would I expect from an applicant for an entry-level professional position?

Instructor: Mark M. Levin, Clinical Associate Professor

I have been at the O'Neill School since 2015. I teach five courses: L564 Local Government Management, L 568 Management of Local Government Services, L 622 Local Economic Development, F610 Government Budgeting and Program Analysis, and a V 600 Capstone. I am the Faculty Advisor for the Local Government Management Concentration.

After receiving a BSEd from Miami University and an MPA from Kent State University, I taught social studies and worked for a nonprofit community organization in Cleveland, OH. I served as Commissioner of Community and Public Relations and then Assistant to the City Manager in Cleveland Heights, OH. I then served as Village Manager of Park Forest South (nee: University Park) and Bolingbrook, both suburbs of Chicago, IL. In 1985, I was appointed City Administrator of Maryland Heights, a suburb of St. Louis, MO. I began 100 days after the city was incorporated, and I held the position for 30 years before retiring in 2015. I was the budget director in each city that I managed. Now I teach what I did.

My wife Lesley graduated from IU. After receiving her MSW from Case Western Reserve, she became a licensed clinical social worker. She was President of a nonprofit organization in St. Louis that provided crisis response services for eastern Missouri. She is now a CASA in Monroe County, Our daughter Sara graduated from IU, worked in amateur wrestling, and now promotes responsible drinking for Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis. Our son Josh received his BA from UMSL. After working as a roadie on world tours, he now works for a theatrical tech services firm.

Mark M. Levin: : Faculty: Profiles: Faculty Directory: Faculty & Research: Directory: Indiana University (Links to an external site.)

How to contact me

Email: levin2@iu.edu or Canvas e-mail. I will make every effort to return your e-mails within 24 business hours. Please be clear in the subject line.

Mobile Phone: 314 578-5439

Student Hours: 11:00 am to 12:00 pm Mondays and Wednesdays, or by appointment (email). My office is room 375B.

To begin

Read the syllabus- located on the left navigation menu.
Complete and electronically submit the Student Information Form posted in Assignments on Canvas.
If you have not previously done so, complete NameChange - located on the left navigation menu.
Acquire the following textbooks:
- A Budgeting Guide for Local Governments,4th Edition. Robert Bland & Michael Overton. 2019. ICMA. ISBN: 978-0873264358

Note: This may be ordered directly from ICMA. To order Email:Orders@icma.org Telephone: 1-888-280-2370. Members of LGMA at O’Neill will receive free ICMA membership, which provides significant savings on this text.

How we'll learn in this course

The course covers governmental budgeting concepts, theories, and practices, which will be presented through lectures, guest practitioners, group discussions, budgeting exercises, and an end-of-term budget simulation instead of a final exam. Guest practitioners will meet with us to discuss their work.

The syllabus contains the details of the course requirements.

Expectations

While regular attendance and participation are expected, occasional absences may be necessitated by sickness or a necessary appointment. No documentation is required.

All written assignments must meet the rigorous standards of professional writing, including the lack of any spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, or grammatical errors. All spreadsheets must be professionally prepared, formatted to be one page wide, with appropriate headings of columns and sections. See files posted on Canvas on Professional Communications.

Tools we'll be using

Excel
Word
PowerPoint
Canvas
Zoom
Kaltura

Resources

Visit the Keep Learning website (Links to an external site.) for information about learning in Canvas.
Enroll in the Keep Learning Canvas site (Links to an external site.) for information about the most widely-used technologies for Canvas courses at Indiana University. (Requires you to enroll in the Canvas site through Expand, the portal that IU uses for various student and staff training resources.)
UITS Tech Support: (Links to an external site.) Open 24/7 to help with your technology questions.