The politics of public budgeting : getting and spending, borrowing and balancing / Irene S. Rubin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rubin, Irene.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Local budgets--Political aspects--United States.

Local budgets.

Budget--Political aspects--United States.

Budget.

Budget--Political aspects.

Local budgets--Political aspects.

United States.

Physical Description:

xviii, 330 pages ; 23 cm

Edition:

Sixth edition.

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C. : CQ Press, [2010]

Contents:

1 The Politics of Public Budgets 1

What Is Budgeting? 3

Minicase: The Time Dimension of Budgeting-Pensions in San Diego 5

Governmental Budgeting 6

Minicase: City Manager Replies to Scathing Budget Critique 9

Minicase: Doctoring Audit Reports 21

Minicase: Unfunded Mandates-No Child Left Behind 22

Minicase: Highly Constrained Budgeting-Colorado's TABOR Amendment 25

The Meaning of Politics in Public Budgeting 26

Budgetary Decision Making 28

Microbudgeting and Macrobudgeting 31

Summary and Conclusions 34

2 Revenue Politics 35

Raising Taxes 36

Minicase: Alabama Governor's $1.2 Billion Tax Increase Defeated 37

Minicase: A Successful Municipal Tax Increase in Dayton, Ohio 39

The Politics of Protection 44

Minicase: Tax Increment Financing 50

Minicase: Tax Breaks and Equity 51

Minicase: Rescuing the Middle Class from the Alternative Minimum Tax 58

Minicase: California and the Persistence of Tax Breaks 59

Minicase: Dell Computers and Tax Breaks 67

The Politics of Reform 67

Summary and Conclusions 70

3 The Politics of Process 72

Minicase: California's Late Budgets and Dysfunctional Budget Rules 73

Budget Process and the Characteristics of Public Budgeting 74

Macro and Micro Politics 76

Designing Process to Achieve Policy and Political Goals 77

Minicase: Republican Macro-Level Reform Proposals 78

Minicase: Micro Politics-Bending the Rules to Win Individual Decisions 80

Minicase: How the Governor's Veto is Used 85

Variation between and among Federal, State, and Local Governments 89

Minicase: San Diego-Fiscal Problems, Strong Mayor, and Veto Powers 94

Summary and Conclusions 99

4 The Dynamics of Changing Budget Processes 101

Overview 102

Minicase: New York State and Pressure to Change the Formal Rules 103

Minicase: The Executive and the Legislature in Florida's Budgeting 106

Major Changes in the Federal Budget Process 110

Minicase: Ad Hoc Scoring Rules 121

Changes in Budget Process at the State Level 123

Minicase: Maryland's Legislative Budget Power 124

Minicase: South Carolina-An Example of a Legislatively Dominated Budget Process 127

Minicase: Nevada-Legislative Access to Agency Budget Requests 129

Changes in Budget Process at the Local Level 130

Minicase: Florida and Unfunded Mandates 137

Summary and Conclusions 141

5 Expenditures: The Politics of Choice 144

Strategies of Agency Heads or Program Directors 146

Minicase: Linking State Department Funding to a Goal of Unlimited Value 150

Minicase: GPRA and PART-Linking Effectiveness to Budget Allocation 151

Minicase: The Department of Housing and Urban Development and Boutique Programs 156

Top-Down Strategies 160

Minicase: Earmark Corruption and Reform 165

Minicase: Calculating the Base in St. Paul, 2005 173

Minicase: Taking the Aviation Trust Fund Off-Budget 180

The Environment Can Affect Spending Priorities 180

Analysis: Accountability and Acceptability 182

Summary and Conclusions 183

6 The Politics of Balancing the Budget 186

Balance as a Constraint 188

Minicase: Balance in the Federal Highway Trust Fund 189

Multiple Actors, Ideologies, and Deficits 190

Minicase: California and the Politics of Acceptability 191

The Environment, Unpredictability, and Deficits 193

Minicase: Wisconsin Confronts Deficits 195

Increasing Stress between Payer and Decider 197

The Politics of Deficits: The Federal Level 201

Deficits in the States 210

Minicase: California and the Governor's Power to Rebalance theBudget 213

Minicase: States Cut Revenues to Local Governments, 2008 217

The Politics of Balance in Cities 220

Minicase: The Politics of Deficits-An Urban Example 222

Summary and Conclusions 224

7 Budget Execution: The Politics of Adaptation 226

Tools for Changing the Budget 229

Minicase: Reprogramming in the Department of Defense 237

Minicase: Congress and the President Fight over Reprogramming 241

Summary and Conclusions 245

8 Budget Implementation and Control 247

The Discretion-Abuse-Control Cycle 247

Minicase: Abuse and Controls at the Department of Defense 252

Minicase: Recent Examples of Salary Absorption225

Discretion and Control: The Politics of Finding Waste, Fraud, and Abuse 258

Minicase: Tension at the CIA 262

Minicase: Getting Too Close to Administration- IGs at the Department of State and NASA 265

Minicase: The Massachusetts Inspector General versus the Council and the Mayor 278

Minicase: The New Orleans Inspector General-Delayed Implementation 279

Summary and Conclusions 281

9 Budgetary Decision Making and Politics 283

Real-Time Budgeting 283

A Comparison of the Decision-Making Streams 287

Common Themes 288

Reconceptualizing Reform 295

Avenues for Research 299

Summary and Conclusions 301.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

9781604264616

1604264616

OCLC:

430344723