Chaos and Compromise: The Evolution of the Mississippi Budgeting Process takes the topic of budgeting and makes it exciting, and not just for political junkies. Instead of focusing on numbers, this book looks at the policymakers responsible for the budget. Brian A. Pugh provides a historical perspective on the decisions and actions of legislators and governors going back more than a century. Pugh reviews how Mississippi's budget making evolved and sifts legislation and litigation as well as those legislators and governors responsible for developing this process. Pugh explains in detail the significant actions taken by the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government that affected Mississippi's procedures. Significant legislation covered includes the passage of Senate Bill 356, which gave the governor the authority to prepare and submit a budget recommendation in 1918; the passage of the Administrative Reorganization Act of 1984; the passage of the Budget Reform Act of 1992; and the passage of the Financial and Operational Responses That Invigorate Future Years Act (FORTIFY) during the First Extraordinary Session of 2017. The first two chapters provide a historical perspective and give the reader an understanding of how legislation and litigation contributed. The book also covers interventions by the courts, which led to the unprecedented separation of powers case Alexander v. State of Mississippi by and Through Allain (1983). In addition to discussing important laws and legislators, Pugh takes a detailed look at six of Mississippi's recent governors - Bill Allain, Ray Mabus, Kirk Fordice, Ronnie Musgrove, Haley Barbour, and Phil Bryant - to examine their methods for getting the legislature to include their ideas in the often anguished process of making a budget.

This book is intended to help professionals, especially from functional areas other than finance-such as sales, marketing, human resource, research and development, production, and procurement-to gain an extensive working knowledge of critical financial principles in an easy-to-follow manner, enabling them to make critical business decisions involving cost-savings, budgets, new projects decisions, and growth strategies. The author introduces the key concepts of finance so you can contribute to the success of your business. These will help you understand the language used by accountants and how financial statements fit together. Furthermore, you will understand how to use ratio analysis to get a sense of the company's performance. In addition, readers will learn the concepts of management accounting and various kinds of decisions, including make-or-buy and shutdown. You will gain an understanding of how to implement budgeting and working capital management. The exciting part is also the chapter on investment appraisal, where readers will learn how to evaluate business proposals from a return standpoint.