The Variety of State Capital Budgets: A Survey

In 1986 the staff of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget reviewed issues concerning the possible development of a federal capital budget. As part of this study, a survey of all 50 states was conducted concerning state capital budgets. This paper summarizes the results of the survey. According to the survey responses, 42 states have capital budgets. Of these 42, 37 generally borrow to finance some public capital and 5 generally do not. Of the 8 states that said they do not have a capital budget, 4 generally borrow to finance some public capital and 4 generally do not. The survey also found that the form of a governor's capital budget, the way legislatures enact capital spending, the coverage of the capital budget, and the method of financing capital vary widely among states, making it virtually impossible to define a state capital budget in a precise way. Large amounts of state capital spending, especially for transportation, are generally not included in state capital budgets.     

A General Empirical Law of Public Budgets: A Comparative Analysis

We examine regularities and differences in public budgeting in comparative perspective. Budgets quantify collective political decisions made in response to incoming information, the preferences of decision makers, and the institutions that structure how decisions are made. We first establish that the distribution of budget changes in many Western democracies follows a non-Gaussian distribution, the power function. This implies that budgets are highly incremental, yet occasionally are punctuated by large changes. This pattern holds regardless of the type of political system—parliamentary or presidential—and for level of government. By studying the power function's exponents we find systematic differences for budgetary increases versus decreases (the former are more punctuated) in most systems, and for levels of government (local governments are less punctuated). Finally, we show that differences among countries in the coefficients of the general budget law correspond to differences in formal institutional structures. While the general form of the law is probably dictated by the fundamental operations of human and organizational information processing, differences in the magnitudes of the law's basic parameters are country- and institution-specific .     

Integrating Gender into Government Budgets: A New Perspective

A government's budget represents a statement of its priorities. During the past 25 years, the international community has recognized that gender equality is essential for sustainable economic growth and full social development, and it has called upon nations to use their budgets to promote genderequitable resource allocation and revenue generation. More than 60 countries have answered this call by implementing gender-responsive budgets at the national and subnational levels. However, gender-responsive budgeting is virtually unheard of among public finance scholars and U.S. public administration scholars and practitioners. Here we define gender-responsive budgeting, discuss the need for it, describe the lessons learned, and discuss its potential as a budget reform. We hope our commentary will bring gender-responsive budgeting into the mainstream of research in the U.S. public administration community and into the practice of government budgeting.     

Public Pension Funds and Operating Budgets: A Tale of Three States

This article provides a normative framework for understanding the important link between public pension fund management and government operating budgets. Three aspects of pension fund management are discussed that have a significant impact on the operating budget: pension contribution, investment strategy, and the funding of pension liabilities. Three cases concerning West Virginia, New Jersey, and New York City are discussed to illustrate these three important aspects. The normative framework and the case studies demonstrate two important principles in prudently managing public pension funds: ensuring intergenerational equity and protecting the long-term health of government budgets.     

Jesse Burkhead and the Multiple Uses of Federal Budgets: A Contemporary Perspective

The work of Jesse Burkhead continues to have great relevance today. Its germaneness could be taken as an indictment of how little progress has been made in federal budgeting in the past half century, but it also says a great deal about Burkhead's insights and the lasting legacy of his work. This article discusses some of Burkhead's ideas on the use of the federal budget and their pertinence to the budget issues of today, including the role of the federal government in the economy, budgetary relations between presidents and Congresses, and the role of performance information in budgeting.     

Have Cities Shifted to Outcome‐Oriented Performance Reporting?—A Content Analysis of City Budgets

“Outcome” orientation has been emphasized in performance measurement and reporting in recent years. Using budgetary documents of the largest cities in the United States, this paper analyzes more than 4,800 performance measures reported by 21 cities to show that clear progress toward outcome‐oriented performance measurement has been made. It also shows that the selection of performance measures differs among types of municipal services and is driven partly by professionalism in city management and the influence of professional organizations. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the findings and potential future improvements of performance reporting.     

Regional Council Program Priorities for the 1990s: Two Emerging Program Clusters, Leading to a Policy Question About Human Services

This research demonstrates that regional councils across the nation are developing a clearer program focus for the 1990s. Two clusters of program priorities are emerging for the future: (1) a transportation planning and environmental preservation cluster and (2) an economic and human resources development cluster. Regional growth is useful as a predictor of the future priorities council executive directors expect to place on these clusters. It is positively associated with future priorities for transportation planning and environmental preservation programs, and negatively associated with future priorities for economic and human resources development programs. However, human services programs do not fall in either program cluster. They receive the lowest future priorities of any major subgroup of programs, leading to a policy question about the role of regional councils in human services delivery in the 1990s and beyond.     

Federal Grants and Local Capital Improvements: The Impact of Reagan Budgets

Changes in intergovernmental grants for local capital improvements during the Reagan Administration are explored from a national perspective and from the experiences of two mid-sized communities, Tulsa, Oklahoma and Toledo, Ohio. Nationally, a roller coaster pattern was identified with a strong down-turn in the most recent data and a notable shift from redevelopment to expansion/development grants such as highway and airport construction. Locally, the first dilemma is that the change in the mix of grants available is having a greater impact on the older Toledo than the newer Tulsa because their capital needs vary. Yet as federal grants declined, both cities responded affirmatively by raising new local revenues for capital improvements. The second dilemma is that the differences in their wealth and needs make revenue enhancement more difficult for Toledo than Tulsa.     

Linking Budgets to Activity: A Test of the Effect of Output‐Purchase Budgeting

Activity‐based budgeting is designed to strengthen the link between activity and budgets. If budgets automatically follow fluctuations in demand, uncertainty is reduced for agencies and politicians can focus more on long‐term decisions. Activity‐based budgeting is likely to fail unless activity can be defined and measured with reasonable accuracy. An equally fundamental condition is the credibility of the budgeting rules. This article provides an empirical test of the effect of output‐purchase budgeting based on data over time from public and private schools. Potentially disturbing variables are held constant, allowing for analysis of the interplay of budgeting systems and credible commitment. Output‐purchase budgeting does indeed strengthen the link between activity and budgets, provided that politicians are able to credibly commit themselves to the rules.