A successful hood includes a financial budget, welfare services and fund raising through local taxes. Learn all about the hood finances in the second articles of our ongoing Hood School!

Being the head of Simmerville's finances, I was asked to write the 2nd Hood School lecture which is dedicated to your hood finances.

In this lecture we will have a detailed look at the hood's communal economy, including local taxes and welfare in particular. The basic for all economy is that in order to spend money you also need to raise money. It is a bad idea to spend more money than you can raise, and even if it is possible to loan simoleons from a bank or even do some so called "rosebud transactions", a Hood Council will to some extend be responsible for pay back time.

Budget
You will need a budget for your hood economy, and the best way to keep track of it would be to leave it to one elected Hood Council member. My job is to suggest a periodical budget and then ask for the Hood Council's approval. When it's approved it will be my job to accomplish the budget.

As the council is representing different sides of our very diverse community, a budget must keep in mind that all groups should benefit from it, but of course services like social welfare might not be equally important to all. Most sims are concerned that they get something back for what they pay (bills, taxes etc). Make sure that at least a part of your budget will appeal to them all or you might be thrown out of local politics next year!

A budget should span a certain period of time, depending on local conditions and traditions. Simmerville is a large hood counting about 35 households meaning that time flows rather slowly, and a natural budget period would be 10 simdays. If your hood counts only 10 households you might want to make a budget for 25 or even 50 simdays.

Here is the Simmerville budget I proposed for the coming period and which our local Council approved:

	Income		Spends
Bills paid	§56.000	SC Services	§56.000
Local taxes	§14.000	Welfare	§13.500
Fund raising	§10.000	Projects	§10.000
Fees	§20.000	Cultural events	§10.000
Downtown rent	§2.000	Council	§12.500
Total income	§102.000	Total spends	§ 102.000

 

Income

Bills
(§56000, sum up the 3 days bills (§16800), divide by 3 days, multiply by 10 days)

Every 3rd day most SimCity households pay their bills. Most likely they don't think much about what they will get back, because those bills must be paid whether they like it or not. The bills cover SimCity services like SimCity Police Department, SimCity Fire Department, SimCity Times newspaper subscription and also some general SimCity taxes. The bill cost depends on each household's networth and house size, and also there is a discount if they have children. You might like to ask each household to make a note on how much they pay, and in three days you can easily gather that information. This income is equal to the hood's costs paid to SimCity. See SimCity Services costs below.

Local taxes
(§14000, §40 x 10 days x 35 households)

You can decide the rate based on how much money you will need to bring in. Remember that local taxes comes on top of ordinary bills. In Simmerville we charge each household §40 per day, which they pay on their Family Day (§200). One sim households has got the right to pay less, but most pay the same no matter how large the household is.

Fund raising/gifts §10000 (hopefully)
You can either invite the wealthy sims to donate simoleons to community matters, a general gift (simoleons) or by paying a specific cost (statue, park renovation, etc ) In Simmeville we have not done this yet, but we plan to have a fund raising on our June 26th community event, in order to start a garden beautifying project.

Fees
(§20000)

You can raise extra income by fining residents who behave badly or demand extra services. Punish the family that always leave garbage on the street, or the sim who is observed slapping strangers on public ground. In Simmerville we charge a fee when a house is being expanded or greatly rebuilt. We also charge a fee when we find that residents can't prove they paid the local taxes. Last time that we ran such a check we got §12500. In Simmerville fees from house expansions brings in about §5000 per 10 simdays.

Downtown business district - rents
(§2000)

We established a business district downtown where local residents can hire an office or a show room for only §50 per day. In this way they can show off their work to a bigger audience. The district can even be a community lot in Old Town.
 

Spends

SimCity Services
(§56000 - this is the same as Bills, see above.)
The reason why the money are sent through the hood administration is our local deal with SimCity. By co-ordinating the bills in this way we gather the costs and are in the position of request better SimCity deals than if each household should arrange it on their on. It also helps us to keep track on what services our residents do request and subscribe.

Welfare
(§13500)
We offer a wide range of welfare services available only to sims living in a household with a Net Worth of less than §50000. 

Some services are intended to help unfortunate sims, others to encourage sims to contribute to the community by starting home businesses. Most are pay per application, meaning they are a one time cost. The exception is the senior pay of §100 per day. 

Retired seniors receive §100 per day. No application needed. Age 60 or older. There are currently 3 sims in Simmerville benefiting from this: 

§100x10x3= §3000

Financial support of §1000 per baby that leaves its cradle. Real born as well as adopted.

Fire insurance - helping with §500 if values of more than §1000 was lost in a fire

Our home business program includes a fund of §1000 for establishing a home based business. The money must be used for buying equipment.

Paying testsims or home businesses who are testing imported items.

Emergency help - when a meteor recently hit Simmerville we were able to help replacing private property for more than §30.000 - thanks to the local taxes!

Projects
(§10000)
We initiate some communal projects that we run in order to help and beautify the hood and all households. These days we celebrate Simmerville's 300 years anniversary by renovating some community builds and this huge project might also affect private homes. Projects might be Garden beautifying, Fences, Pet welfare, Secure the school bus, Computer in all households, etc.

Community Events
(§10000)

These events are normally organized by local interest groups, such as Food Club, Mazaloom Historical Association, Music Events, etc. 
Money is intended for pay cheques, awards etc.

Paying the Hood Council members
(§12500 - 5x§2500)
Hood Councillors are paid §250 per day. 

* * *
 
 

Total income: §102.000
Total spends: §102.000
Like you see, the total income and the total costs do balance. If we spend less than the budget, we would transfer the amount on to the next budget period, eventually leading to lowering the local taxes. If we spend more than we bring in, we must raise the local taxes or cut down on the welfare services in the coming period.