User Friendly Budget Case Study

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Is the New Jersey requirement for local municipalities to create a User-Friendly Budget really going to increase citizen engagement in local government? Are more citizens going to be interested in local government or politics due to this new requirement by the division of local government services? The answer to this may not yet been known in the State of New Jersey, however, this literature review is going to review several different criteria’s that might answer these questions. First off, this review will examine the existing research into why there was need to create the User-Friendly Budget form based on the issues with the citizens being able to understand the entire budget document. Secondly, research will be reviewed on how others have monitored and evaluated citizen engagement either …show more content…
This was an expected result as well as the respondents that stated that one of the major ways for citizens to be engaged with their government is through council meetings, 94% of respondents agreed. This is valuable information because these facts show that when looking at citizen engagement it cannot be relied on citizens getting involved by their own free will, but how are elected officials or the chief appointed official attempting engage with their citizens.
In looking at elected officials and the chief appointed official research has shown that this may be a problem. The problem lies in the fact that chief appointed officials or administrators may view citizen engagement as problem that may inhibit compromise. A random sample was taken of 221 small to midsize municipalities in Minnesota and Michigan found out that local government administers viewpoint can have a large impact on what is perceived as citizen

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