I wanted to talk a little about the work I do in my internship. The main focus of my job is collecting grant money from the state. My job is to organize, update, and find expenditures from certain city transportation projects which are available for reimbursements from the state. The reason why I do this is because in 2004, Arizona voters passed Proposition 400. The proposition authorizes a 20-year continuation of the half-cent sales tax for transportation projects in Maricopa County (ARS 38-6345). This half-cent sales tax will help pay for transportation projects such as road widening, renovations of old roads, and so on. The way the process works is the City of Mesa will pay 100% of the costs up front, and at the year-end of the budget, my boss and I will go through the expenditures to match up the costs of the projects with the numbers in all the other departments. Once we have balanced numbers, we will calculate and charge the state 70% of the costs. The 70% will be paid from the generation of the half-cent sales tax. The process is very time consuming because not every department will have the exact same numbers and we have to locate and address the discrepancies. We are hoping to find around a million dollars in reimbursement money for this fiscal year, but with the budgetary crisis, the 20-year plan has been altered, and there have been some projects which have been suspended. So I think this number is a little high, but I think it is good to have promising hopes during these times.
Having the responsibility of this job makes me feel very proud. I know many of the concepts are advanced for my financial skills, but with being able to save the city money and maybe jobs, this accountability helps motivate me to learn and complete the job to my best ability. With cities trying to scrap and save, I feel I am completing an important duty. I am worried about the current financial situation at the City of Mesa, and I do not know what will happen with the FY 11’s budget. But I hope the work I do can help alleviate some of the stress during these times.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Godd luck hunting for the million dollars! I'm sure it won't be easy but can be done. And what a rewarding responsiblity.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty cool to be in that type of position.
ReplyDeleteUsing the information that is available to you will definitely let you have an impact on any community...=)
Wow, your job sounds very time consuming but necessary. I hope it doesn't cause you too much of a headache trying to locate and account for all the discrepancies. What you are doing does have an impact on the community. :)
ReplyDeleteSeems like a tough job but you much feel some gratification. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteThat seems like really valuable experience and a marketable skill that you will have when trying to get a position somewhere else. That's awesome!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post for those that do not know how something like a budget works or collecting money from the state.
ReplyDelete