Budget story proposal

To: Editor

From: Maria Romano

Re: Story Proposal: Analysis of the Huntington City FY 2012 Budget

March 17, 2011

Subject: FY 2012 Huntington city budget

Scope:  This story will include an analysis of the proposed Huntington city budget and any major changes in the budget of the fire department.

Need:  Based upon the city budget meetings I have attended, it seems that the proposed budget will differ from the budget that will be adopted by the city council.

Methods: This story will be approached by examining the original budget proposal for FY 2012.  The information will be organized into charts and graphs, including a sidebar about the changes in the budget of the fire department.  I will also compare Huntington’s budget to the budget of a city of a similar size.

Sources: My sources will be the Huntington city budget, the results of city budget meetings following the initial budget proposal as well as Mayor Kim Wolfe.  I will look through newspaper articles for information regarding the budget of another city similar to the size of Huntington.

Presentation:  This will be presented in two stories.  The first is about the overall proposed city budget along with a sidebar and graphs.  The second will be about the adopted budget.

Follow-up:  A follow-up story would be written about the how the proposed budget compares to the budget that was actually adopted.