The regular evaluation of an organization’s finances goes a long way toward establishing trust with stakeholders, such as tax payers, board members, clients, patrons, and funding agencies. Just as financial planning and budgeting are integral parts of an organization’s success, financial audits and evaluations are vital parts of the functioning of an organization. Evaluating the financial condition of an organization involves determining whether it has the revenue from taxes, fees, and other sources to meet its needs as well as if its assets exceed its liabilities. Assessing the financial condition is really just an analysis of the city’s financial health.

In this Assignment, discuss the city in which you live and then evaluate its financial condition and opportunities for growth by addressing the bulleted statements below. Be sure to first review your readings and then research additional resources to assist in your evaluation. For example, it is helpful to examine available data and other public documents for that city. These resources are useful and should be incorporated into your paper, but remember that those resources do not count as scholarly (peer-reviewed, academic articles and texts).

To complete:

Write a 6- to 8-page paper (not including title page and reference page) that addresses the following:

• Describe your local city or county entity. Include descriptive information as population, trends, and other important demographical information. (1 page)
• Look at sales tax in the city, which is a main source of revenue. Is your entity’s revenue and expenditures balanced? Why or why not? In your assessment, consider the following three factors: amount of revenue that the entity is collecting, the percentage of total revenue contributed by sales tax, how much the city is spending. (2 pages)
• Consider these six important factors that impact city revenue: Deterioration of revenue base, internal procedures or policies that may adversely affect revenue yields, over-dependence on obsolete or external revenue sources, changes in tax burden, poor revenue estimating practices, and inefficiency in the collection and administration of revenues. Select two that apply to your city, and then evaluate how these impact your city. (1- 2 pages)
• You propose to increase city tax revenue, and you know from your course readings that price elasticity and demand are important considerations. Understanding the characteristics of your city, evaluate whether the following three tax increase options would be effective: 1) a .5% increase in sales tax, 2) a 3% increase in restaurant tax, and 3) a 5% increase in tourism tax. In your evaluation, consider price elasticity and positive and negative externalities for each type of tax.This is where knowing your city and its major sources of revenue are especially important. (1 – 1 1/2 pages)
• As part of your conclusion, provide one recommendation to improve the city’s financial health. Examples may include (but are not limited to) the need to shift public or customer service priorities or a need to shift policies because of a loss of competitive position. Be creative – one suggestion may be to research examples of other similar cities and determined what changes have worked for them. (1/2 – 1 page)Use proper APA formatting and include the following:

• A title page and running head
• An introduction that states the purpose of the paper
• Level 1 headings to define each part (bullet) of the paper
• A conclusion to synthesize the entire paper
• A minimum of three additional scholarly sources to support your paper
• In-text citations as appropriate
• A reference list

Film Philosophy: analyze the film Life of Pi (2012) focusing on the role of myth, narrative, belief, or any other topic that demonstrates critical engagement with the module theme, assigned readings, and the film.

1. Theme:

2. Identify 2-3 philosophical questions or problems:

3. Pick one philosophical question or problem to address:

4. Identify 3-4 relevant terms, concepts, or principles from the assigned materials:

5. Identify 2-3 possible conclusions using the terms, concepts, or principles from the readings:

Use links to answer 4-5:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/perspecti…

http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyc…

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454876/

This discussion forum allows you the opportunity to explore topics that interest you and relate to the United States government and the political processes we are discussing. Within this forum, you will share critical insights and discuss questions and issues that we are studying, share your personal challenges and successes, and discuss any concepts that you do not completely understand that have been discussed or addressed in our materials this week. Your initial post should focus on your personal experience within the course over the past week and should prompt further discussion from your classmates. Please be sure to address the following questions:

• What policy did you decide on for your Final Paper? What research have you found to support your ideas? Is your research reliable and unbiased?

In addition to the questions above, also address at least one of the following questions as you reflect on the learning week:

• What was the most interesting and/or intriguing concept you learned about during this week?
• Are there any current events that you can recall that relate to the course concepts we are studying this week?
• What insights have you had?
• What concepts are causing you to struggle?
• What questions have arisen for you at this point?
• Do you have any helpful tips or ideas to help students better understand the material and course concepts?
• What questions do you have regarding any of the discussions or assignments that your classmates might be able to provide insight? (Please note, if you have a question for the instructor, be sure to contact them through email or in the Ask Your Instructor forum, as they may not see the question here.)

Locate and provide a lesson plan that is aligned to a national or state English language arts standard. Using the “COE Lesson Plan Template” for reference, evaluate this lesson plan in 500 words based on the following criteria:

1. Thoroughness of the lesson plan components.
2. Alignment between the standard, learning objectives, learning and teaching activities, and the assessment.
3. Real-world relevance of the learning and teaching activities.
4. Regarding evidence or artifacts of learning, how would the teacher know that the students have mastered the learning objectives?
5. Regarding the expected engagement level, would the students find the activities interesting and engaging?