Economics and Business Students Discuss Public Finance with Easton Mayor

This past semester, 14 students taking the Public Finance course taught by Gladstone Fluney Hutchinson, associate professor of economics and business, had the opportunity to visit Easton’s City Hall to discuss how local government manages public finances.

The students met with Mayor Phil Mitman, chief of staff Stu Gallaher, and business administrator Steve Humphrey. Susan Averett, Dana Professor and head of economics and business, also attended the meeting.

Hutchinson was eager to offer his students insight into how public finance is practiced in real life to complement the theoretical learning of the classroom. They learned how residents’ responses to taxes and the quality and provision of public services such as schools, security, parks and public spaces, sanitation, and overall quality of life affect the financial well-being of the city.

“Residents will ‘vote with their feet’ and relocate if they think they can get a better bundle of services for their tax burden elsewhere,” Hutchinson says. “Hence, as the students became acutely aware of, Easton competes directly with Allentown, Bethlehem, and the other suburban areas for residents. The Mayor’s team exposed students to the trade-offs and choices the City of Easton had to make to preserve its fiscal health.”

For economics and business major Stephen Spurrier ’07 (Burlington, Conn.), the meeting was a chance to see Hutchinson’s classroom lessons in action. Spurrier plans to enter the banking field after graduation, either as a financial analyst or personal banker.

“Meeting with these public officials really helped me better understand Professor Hutchinson’s lectures in the sense that a lot of state and local government issues that we were studying, such as taxes and the mobility of a population, were discussed by the Mayor,” he says. “I learned that being involved in a local government is not a very glamorous job, but it does provide a certain sense of reward if you can succeed.”

John Tully ’07 (Berkeley Heights, N.J.), an economics and business major who plans to pursue a career in sales and trading for a Wall Street firm, appreciated Hutchinson’s balance between classroom learning and practical applications.

“Being able to apply classroom lessons to real-life situations was an experience that I felt very fortunate to be a part of,” he says. “I’ve learned more than I can imagine by taking Public Finance with Professor Hutchinson. His balance of real-life experience as an economic adviser for Jamaica and ability to teach a classroom effectively are what made him stand out.”

Hutchinson was pleased with the meeting and by how much his students learned in a short time.

“The Mayor and his team were excellent, and the students were very prepared,” Hutchinson says. “In the end, I thought students walked away with a sense that public finance management of small cities was challenging but doable, and that the Mayor and his team deserved their admiration and praise. For me, it was the best teaching environment I could have asked for.”

Other students who attended the meeting include economics and business major Brandon Carter ’07 (Voorhees, N.J.), economics and business major Gregory Corcoran ’07 (Ridgewood, N.J.), economics & business and anthropology & sociology double major Jessica Ferringer ’07 (Fulton, Miss.), economics and business major Geoffrey Geimer ’08 (Greenwich, Conn.), economics and business major Benjamin Jones ’07 (Pen Argyl, Pa.), economics and business major Bryan Kazimierowski ’07 (Camp Hill, Pa.), economics & business and mathematics double major Ko Ko Maung ’07 (Tharkayta Yangon, Myanmar), economics and business major Katie Moore ’07 (St. Thomas, Virgin Islands), economics & business and government & law double major Meghan Morel ’07 (Williston, Vt.), international affairs major Emily Seidmon ’07 (Dresher, Pa.), economics & business and A.B. engineering double major Joshua Smith ’07 (Baltimore, Md.), and international commerce major Adam Yerry ’07 (Rhinebeck, N.Y.).