Local Budgeting

Local budgeting serves important functions that include setting priorities, planning, financial control over inputs, management of operations and accountability to citizens. These objectives give rise to technical and policy issues that require open discussion and debate. The format of the budget document can facilitate this debate. This book provides a comprehensive treatment of all aspects of local budgeting needed to develop sound fiscal administration at the local level. Topics covered include fiscal administration, forecasting, fiscal discipline, fiscal transparency, integrity of revenue administration, budget formats, and processes including performance budgeting, and capital budgeting.

Budgeting for Local Governments and Communities is designed as the primary textbook for a quarter or semester-long course in public budgeting and finance in an MPA programme. Many currently available texts for this course suffer from a combination of defects that include a focus on federal and state budgeting, a lack of a theoretical governance framework, an omission of important topics, and typically a lack of exercises and datasets for student use. Budgeting for Local Governments and Communities solves all of these problems. The book is exceptionally comprehensive and well written, and represents the efforts of veteran authors with both teaching and real-world experience. Key Features: Special Focus on Local Government Budgeting: focuses exclusively on budgeting at the local levels of American government, which are responsible for spending 40 percent of the taxes collected from citizens. Integration of Theory and Practice: teaching cases and chapters capture the "lessons learned" by professional practitioners who have extensive experience in making local public budgeting work on the ground. Polity Approach to Local Budgeting: presents an introduction to local budgeting as the central political activity that integrates the resources of the community into a unified whole. Budgeting is presented as governance work, rather than as a unique set of skills possessed by analysts and financial specialists. Legal, Historical, Economic and Moral Foundations of Local Government Budgeting: provides readers with an understanding of how the structures and processes of local budgeting systems are firmly tethered to the underlying core values, legal principles and historical development of the larger American federal, state and local political systems. Electronic Datasets and Budgeting Exercises: the text includes access to extensive electronic datasets and practice exercises that provide abundant opportunities for students to "learn through doing." Extensive Glossary and Bibliography: covers terms on the history and practice of local public budgeting.

In an effort to bridge the gap between budget theorists and practitioners, this book approaches local government budgeting as the internal resource allocation process of a highly differentiated organization that operates in a very political environment, and whose boundaries are particularly permeable during the formal budget process. Written by academics with extensive practical experience in local government budgeting and finance, this text will be equally useful to practitioners, scholars and students. Theory building in public budgeting has been dominated by political science and economics, and these approaches have not produced theories that can serve as guides to action for practitioners or help them understand their action environments. In order to produce theory that has meaning for practitioners, researchers should approach the subject as it is experienced by practitioners. The long-term financial health of local governments requires an integrated approach to public budgeting. This book develops theory that illuminates practice. It recognizes that the budget process is the only organization-wide process that integrates all of the agencies that comprise the government, and thus, the budget must address the long-term consequences of any action. The budget process itself is presented as a vehicle to develop the decision premises and organizational values that will support allocative efficiency and productivity.

4th edition of the premier text on local government budgeting, revenues, and financig.

Provides a comprehensive theoretical and practical framework for informing budget decisions based on the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery. The authors enliven the text with references to their original research and personal experiences with performance measurement, citizen satisfaction surveys, and financial management practices. This edition includes increased coverage of cost accounting procedures and of citizen participation in performance management.

Navigating the increasingly complex crosscurrents of local government finance has become an essential skill for today's public administrator. The convergence of rising expectations from citizens and council members, anemic growth in revenue sources, and unfunded pensions now coming due has complicated the local manager's task of preparing a budget that balances revenues with expenditures. More fundamentally, today's managers must deliver services at a time when public confidence in government and its ability to perform have reached unparalleled lows. This book examines the issues that a local manager confronts in developing a budget--both the choice of public services and projects to provide, and the choice of revenue sources used to pay for them. When formulating a budget, the manager must balance what is economically best, politically expedient, and administratively possible. Because the manager must also respond to citizens' perceptions of an issue, whatever their accuracy, this book also examines budgets in those terms. In a more general sense, effective leadership requires that the public administrator shape as well as follow public opinion. The recommendations made throughout this book are designed to enhance citizens' confidence in the responsiveness and competence of local government leaders.