NI Draft Priorities and Budget Consultation 2006-2008 - Institute response

The Institute of Public Health in Ireland works to combat health inequalities and influence public policies in favour of health in Ireland, North and South. The Institute applies a holistic model of health which emphasises a wide range of determinants, including economic, educational, environmental, social and biological factors, as well as public services. The Institute’s work is based on the premise that improving health and reducing health inequalities in a sustainable way can only be achieved through addressing these broader determinants of health. We believe that the strategic direction of public spending in Northern Ireland has enormous potential to impact on people’s health, well being and prosperity.  We welcome the opportunity to comment on the draft priorities and the associated budget for 2006-2008 as set out in the consultation document.

The Cool Climate, Oenology and Viticulture Institute at Brock University

A program from Brock University which includes an overview of the plan for CCOVI, a list of the courses for each year of the undergraduate program, notes from the advisory committee, budget information, industry funding requests, and a five year financial chart for spending. The program includes photographs of individuals involved with CCOVI, including two photographs featuring Donald Ziraldo. A direct quote from Mr. Ziraldo is also included: "Education and research will build on each other when they come together in the Institute. The 'cool climate' focus will be unique and attract people world-wide".

Asymmetrically fair rules for an indivisible good problem with a budget constraint

We study a particular restitution problem where there is an indivisible good (land or property) over which two agents have rights: the dispossessed agent and the owner. A third party, possibly the government, seeks to resolve the situation by assigning rights to one and compensate the other. There is also a maximum amount of money available for the compensation. We characterize a family of asymmetrically fair rules that are immune to strategic behavior, guarantee minimal welfare levels for the agents, and satisfy the budget constraint.

Efficient interactive budget planning and adjusting under financial stress

One of the most challenging tasks in financial management for large governmental and industrial organizations is Planning and Budgeting (P&B). The processes involved with P&B are cost and time intensive, especially when dealing with uncertainties and budget adjustments during the planning horizon. This work builds on our previous research in which we proposed and evaluated a fuzzy approach that allows optimizing the budget interactively beyond the initial planning stage. In this research we propose an extension that handles financial stress (i.e. drastic budget cuts) occurred during the budget period. This is done by introducing fuzzy stress parameters which are used to re-distribute the budget in order to minimize the negative impact of the financial stress. The benefits and possible issues of this approach are analyzed critically using a real world case study from the Nuremberg Institute of Technology (NIT). Additionally, ongoing and future research directions are presented.

Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture Budget Hearing

Good afternoon Senator Wehrbein and members of the Appropriations Committee. I am John Owens, and I am University of Nebraska Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Harlan Vice Chancellor of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln. I am here to speak with you about the impact of further budget cuts to the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture - NCTA - at Curtis, Nebraska.

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF FEDERAL FAMILY PLANNING POLICY: AN ANALYSIS OF FACTORS AFFECTING STATE EXPENDITURES, FISCAL YEARS 1976-1981 (WOMEN, BUDGET, POPULATION)

The purpose of this study was to analyze the implementation of national family planning policy in the United States, which was embedded in four separate statutes during the period of study, Fiscal Years 1976-81. The design of the study utilized a modification of the Sabatier and Mazmanian framework for policy analysis, which defined implementation as the carrying out of statutory policy. The study was divided into two phases. The first part of the study compared the implementation of family planning policy by each of the pertinent statutes. The second part of the study identified factors that were associated with implementation of federal family planning policy within the context of block grants.^ Implemention was measured here by federal dollars spent for family planning, adjusted for the size of the respective state target populations. Expenditure data were collected from the Alan Guttmacher Institute and from each of the federal agencies having administrative authority for the four pertinent statutes, respectively. Data from the former were used for most of the analysis because they were more complete and more reliable.^ The first phase of the study tested the hypothesis that the coherence of a statute is directly related to effective implementation. Equity in the distribution of funds to the states was used to operationalize effective implementation. To a large extent, the results of the analysis supported the hypothesis. In addition to their theoretical significance, these findings were also significant for policymakers insofar they demonstrated the effectiveness of categorical legislation in implementing desired health policy.^ Given the current and historically intermittent emphasis on more state and less federal decision-making in health and human serives, the second phase of the study focused on state level factors that were associated with expenditures of social service block grant funds for family planning. Using the Sabatier-Mazmanian implementation model as a framework, many factors were tested. Those factors showing the strongest conceptual and statistical relationship to the dependent variable were used to construct a statistical model. Using multivariable regression analysis, this model was applied cross-sectionally to each of the years of the study. The most striking finding here was that the dominant determinants of the state spending varied for each year of the study (Fiscal Years 1976-1981). The significance of these results was that they provided empirical support of current implementation theory, showing that the dominant determinants of implementation vary greatly over time. ^

Political institutions and policy outcomes : effects of presidential vetoes on budget making

The article examines how the power distribution between the executive and the legislature under the Presidential system affects policy outcomes. We focus in particular on the presidential veto, both package and partial. Using a simple game theory model, we show that the presidential partial veto generally yields a result in favor of the President, but that such effects vary depending on the reversion points of the package veto and the Congress's possible use of sanctions against the President. The effects of the Presidential partial veto diminish if the reversion point meets certain conditions, or if the Congress has no power to impose sufficient sanctions on the President when the President revises the outcome ex-post. To clarify and explain the model, we present the case of budget making in the Philippines between 1994 and 2008. In the Philippines, the presidential partial veto has been bringing expenditure programs closer to the President's ideal point within what may be called the Congress's indifference curve. The Congress, however, has not always passed budget bills and from time to time has carried over the previous year's budget, in years when the budget deficit increased. This is the situation that the policy makers cannot retrieve from the reversion point.

Restructuring the state budget system for disinflation and exchange rate unification in Myanmar

The installment of a new government has augmented the prospect for implementing disinflation and exchange rate unification in Myanmar. A close look at the state budget shows that the reform of the budget system for state economic enterprises (SEEs) is essential. Reforms need to hold the replacement of controlled prices including the official exchange rate with market prices in SEE operations, and the separation of the SEEs from the state budget. But separating the SEEs from the state budget will necessitate careful planning to cope with SEE bankruptcies which would imposes another fiscal burden on the government. Therefore, economic viability must be a criterion for the continuation of their operations.

The budget,

"Prepared under the direction of Frederick A. Cleveland."

Aquisição de açúcar e perfil de macronutrientes na cesta de alimentos adquirida pelas famílias brasileiras (2002-2003)

Avaliou-se a influência exercida pela aquisição de calorias de açúcar sobre a participação calórica dos demais macronutrientes da dieta. As estimativas deste estudo são baseadas em dados da Pesquisa de Orçamentos Familiares realizada no Brasil pelo Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística entre julho de 2002 e junho de 2003. Modelos de regressão linear múltiplos foram utilizados para estudar a influência das calorias de açúcar sobre a participação calórica de cada um dos macronutrientes na aquisição domiciliar de alimentos com o controle do valor calórico total da aquisição de alimentos e variáveis sócio-demográficas. Cada caloria adquirida de açúcar eleva em 0,3 caloria a participação de gorduras na aquisição domiciliar de alimentos e diminui em 0,07 a participação de proteínas. Cada caloria de açúcar procedente de alimentos processados aumenta em 1,6 caloria a participação de gorduras e em 0,4 caloria de ácidos graxos saturados e diminui em 0,8 caloria a participação de outros carboidratos que não o açúcar. Os resultados encontrados trazem novas evidências sobre o papel prejudicial do açúcar à saúde humana.