Budgeting for Our Times: Target Base Budgeting

Target base budgeting sets limits on how much a department may request in its budget. Departments must submit two budget requests—one within the target base and another for additional funds. Some supplemental requests may be funded from a reserve pool. Target base budgeting has been used in parts of the federal government over the last forty years. Its use continues to slowly expand. This article examines the experiences in three cities: Rochester, Tampa, and Phoenix.     

Practical Imagination: A Possible Future for Federal Budgeting

To develop a federal budget process that delivers better fiscal outcomes for the nation consistently over an extended period would require new information and analysis, applying these to decisions through properly designed procedures, and strengthening the institutions that support wise fiscal choices. Changes in each of these process components intended to contribute to good fiscal outcomes are described, and obstacles to their adoption and use are noted. Such reforms could yield budgets that deploy public resources today to carry out strategies promising to increase the nation's ability to survive inevitable social and fiscal shocks and to take advantage of expected and unexpected opportunities for its citizens to thrive, grow, and fulfill their dreams.     

Zero Base Budgeting: The Manager's Budget

This article offers an assessment of zero-base budgeting (ZBB) derived from a field study conducted by the Urban Institute and supported by the National Science Foundation. Four cities and four states participated in the study, and several hundred public officials were interviewed.     

Federal Budgeting and Finance in 1991: The Future is Now

The large federal deficits run throughout the 1980s generated concern that we were mortgaging our future. In 1991, the note came due. The potential for aggravating the long-run deficit problem constrained fiscal policy from reacting to the recession. Institutional and partisan conflict and the controls established by the Budget Enforcement Act (BEA) limited responses to a remarkable budgetary opportunity—the dissolution of the Soviet Union—and to a serious budgetary threat—exploding health care costs. The BEA controls were applied rigidly with a few minor exceptions, and credit reform was implemented successfully; on the other hand, Congress and the president made no headway on further deficit reductions even though long-run projections worsened. The agenda-setting role of the president's budget for the fiscal year 1993 diminished, as the document's format was heavily influenced by the upcoming presidential election. In contrast to this mixed record for federal budgeting, progress was made in building a financial management structure and developing accounting standards.     

Budgeting for Development: The Case of Nigeria

This article evaluates the developmental efforts of the federal government of Nigeria and how these efforts have proceeded during the "boom and bust" cycles that have been a major feature of the Nigerian economy. The unpredictability of resource flows creates uncertainty in resource allocation and capital accumulation. Thus, economic development is subject to the characteristic "boom and bust budgeting," resulting in disastrous delays and cancellations of expenditures and projects. For economic development to continue uninterrupted, Nigeria must develop a core of ability-based, as opposed to needs-based, programs that must be protected from the hazards of boom and bust budgeting and the business cycle.     

Police Budgeting: Winning Strategies

Based on a national survey of police chiefs with a follow-up focus group, this article discusses budgetary strategies that police departments used to be successful in budgeting. The strategies include: using crime and workload data judiciously; capitalizing on sensational crime incidents; effectively getting the message out; carefully mobilizing interest groups; strategic planning; playing the federal grants game; working closely with the chief executive and elected officials; and involving all departmental staff levels in budgeting.     

Budgeting for Contracting in Local Government

While the amount of contracting out seems to be leveling off, the number of larger, long‐term contracts seems to be increasing. Such contracts are generally not well described in local budgets. Recent efforts in some cities to shift to more outcome‐oriented performance budgeting should push toward more clarity in reporting on major contracts in the budget. This article examines how a handful of major cities handle contracts in their budgets—in some cities contracts are omitted from the budget or all merged into one budget line—and makes some suggestions for improvements.     

Municipal Capital Budgeting: An Examination

The state of capital budgeting theory is going through its growing pains. While traditional literature on capital budgeting is grounded in rational decision-making, Nunn (1990) has suggested that such an approach is too limited to be of significant value. New theories, he argues, need to reflect differences in capital demand and differences in approaches to local policy, thereby reflecting both the economically-rational and other components of capital budgeting. In this study, we examine the rigor of the traditional rational approach and the typology put forth by Nunn. Based on a broad cross-sectional analysis of municipal finance directors, we find that capital budgeting is more complex than usually presented. Yet contrary to the argument by Nunn, we also find that the process is restricted more to internal participants, with limited and targeted participation by the public and other external actors.     

Implementing the GPRA: Examining the Prospects for Performance Budgeting in the Federal Government

The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) is the latest in a series of attempts to introduce performance-based management and budgeting techniques at the federal level in the United States. In the past, these attempts largely failed due to administrative complexities, lack of investment in managerial, accounting, and information systems, and the absence of institutional incentives to promote gains in economic efficiency. Whereas we find the objectives of the GPRA laudable, we question whether this current incarnation of performance budgeting can succeed in transforming the traditional focus of federal budgeting from annual appropriations and obligations to multiyear outputs and outcomes.     

Using Performance Measures for Federal Budgeting: Proposals and Prospects

The political system, the popular press, and the public have recently been concerned about measuring government performance. This concern for measuring performance should imply a concern for measuring it correctly. With this in mind, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently conducted an analysis of the use of performance measures in the budget process. The study attempts to review the issues raised by performance budgeting in the context of past and current efforts to link performance measures and budgeting. This article focuses on two portions of that study: The status of the current federal performance measurement efforts and specific observations designed to inject a note of caution into the current debate about performance measurement and budgeting.     

Budgeting during the Clinton Presidency

This article assesses the Clinton administration record of budgeting. During President Clinton's two terms, the federal government moved from an era of large deficits to one of equally large surpluses. This turnaround was caused by both the strong economy and the deficit reduction deals of 1990, 1993, and 1997. Defense spending and interest declined as a percentage of the budget, whereas mandatory spending and nondefense discretionary spending increased. Acrimonious interbranch budgetary relationships dominated, with Clinton ultimately winning far more fights than he lost. Executive branch budgetary and financial management capacity improved during the Clinton administration.     

Graduate Curricula in Budgeting and Financial Management: Recommendations for Reform

This is an abridged version of the final report of the American Society for Public Administration's (ASPA) Section on Budgeting and Financial Management's Task Force on Curriculum Reform. The report was produced by the Section on Budgeting and Financial Management's Executive Committee. The complete final report is available from Robert Berne, Graduate School of Public Administration, New York University, 4 Washington Square North, New York, NY 1003, or James Alexander, Department of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, Johnstown, PA 15904.     

State Medicaid Budgeting in Hard Times: Implications for Long-Term Care

This qualitative analysis compares the annual Medicaid budgeting processes in Utah and Illinois from the late 1970s until 1985, explaining why Utah cut the proportion spent on nursing homes and Illinois did not. It posits rational, organizational, and political process interpretations of each state's choices. The states implemented Medicaid rationing (through preadmission screening, rate freezes and adjustments, and expansion of alternatives) in significantly different ways. Utah reduced utilization of nursing homes while Illinois contained rates. Such diverse policy choices have aggravated disparities among the states in access to and quality of long-term care. Rational planning for our aging society will have to overcome these growing disparities among state policies.