Foreword
Acknowledgments
CHAPTER 1: The Politics of Public Budgets
What is Budgeting?
Governmental Budgeting
Minicase: City Manager Replies to Scathing Budget Critique
Minicase: Missouri Constitutional Amendment Reduces Governor¿s Powers
Minicase: Young Protesters in Court
Minicase: The Courts and New Jersey Pension Reform
Minicase: The Federal Debt Limit as a Constraint
Minicase: Highly Constrained Budgeting¿Colorado¿s TABOR Amendment
The Meaning of Politics in Public Budgeting
Budgetary Decision-Making
Microbudgeting and Macrobudgeting
Summary and Conclusions
Useful Websites
CHAPTER 2: Revenue Politics
Raising Taxes
Minicase: Supermajorities to Raise Taxes
Minicase: LouisianäGetting Around the No-Tax-Increase Pledge
Minicase: A Tax Increase in Philadelphia
The Politics of Protection
Minicase: Wisconsin and Unexamined Tax Breaks
Minicase: Illinois and the Role of the Press
Minicase: Tax Breaks for Hedge Fund Managers
Minicase: California and Enterprise Zone Tax Breaks
Minicase: North Carolina and Business Tax Breaks
Minicase: Michigan¿Terminating its Film Subsidy
Minicase: New Mexico and Tax Expenditure Reporting
Tax Reform
Minicase: Georgia Tax Reform Left Hanging
Minicase: Michigan Tax Reform or Class Warfare?
Minicase: The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: Is it a Tax Reform?
Summary and Conclusions
Useful Websites
CHAPTER 3: The Politics of Process
Budget Process and the Characteristics of Public Budgeting
Minicase: Harrisburg¿Whose Priorities Dominate?
Designing Process to Achieve Policy and Political Goals
Macro- and Micropolitics
Minicase: Republican Macrolevel Reform Proposals
Minicase: Micropolitics¿Bending the Rules to Win Individual Decisions
Minicase: How the Governor¿s Veto is Used
Variation between and among Federal, State, and Local Governments
Minicase: Maine¿The Governor versus the Legislature
Minicase: Limits of Governor¿s Vetoes in New Mexico
Minicase: San Diego¿Fiscal Problems, Strong Mayor, and Veto Powers
Summary and Conclusions
Useful Websites
CHAPTER 4: The Dynamics of Changing Budget Processes
Overview
Minicase: New York State¿Powerful Governor, Weak Legislature, Informal Budgeting
Minicase: The Governor versus the Courts
Federal Budget Process Changes
Minicase: Deeming Resolutions and Ad Hoc Budgeting
Minicase: Ad Hoc Scoring Rules
Minicase: Overseas Contingency Operations
Minicase: Budget Process Reform 2018?
Changes in Budget Process at the State Level
Minicase: Maryland¿s Legislative Budget Power
Minicase: South Carolinäs Legislatively Dominated Budget Process Begins to Budge
Minicase: The Executive and the Legislature in Floridäs Budgeting
Changes in Budget Process at the Local Level
Minicase: Florida and Unfunded Mandates
Summary and Conclusions
Useful Websites
CHAPTER 5: Expenditures: Strategies, Structures, and the Environment
Strategies
Minicase: A $17,000 Drip Pan
Minicase: Homeland Security¿A Program Tied to a Goal of Unlimited Worth
Minicase: Amtrak Train Wreck
Minicase: Congressional Budget Office and Scoring
Structure
Minicase: Budgetary Implications of Direct College Loans versus Loan Guarantees
Minicase: An Open-Ended Discretionary Program¿Immigration Enforcement
Minicase: Trump, Immigration Enforcement, and the Threat of Grant Denial
Minicase: California and Mandatory Spending on Redevelopment Agencies
Minicase: Fannie and Freddie: Government Bailout, a Loan, or Investment?
Minicase: New Jersey¿s Fund Diversion from the Unemployment Insurance Fund
The Environment
Strategy, Structure, and Environment Combined: The Medicare Example
Summary and Conclusions
Useful Websites
CHAPTER 6: The Politics of Balancing the Budget
Defining the Balance Constraint
Minicase: Was the Wisconsin Budget Balanced?
Minicase: Balance in the Federal Highway Trust Fund
Minicase: Illinois Funds Sweep
Multiple Actors, Ideologies, and Deficits
The Environment, Unpredictability, and Deficits
Increasing Stress between Payer and Decider
Minicase: Chicago¿s Parking Meters
Minicase: Iowäs Privatization of Medicaid
The Politics of Deficits: The Federal Level
The Politics of Deficits: States
Minicase: Detroit Bankruptcy
Minicase: Why Did Jefferson County, Alabama, Declare Bankruptcy?
The Politics of Balance in Cities
Minicase: The Politics of Deficits¿An Urban Example
Summary and Conclusions
Useful Websites
CHAPTER 7: Budget Execution: The Politics of Adaptation
Tools for Changing the Budget
Minicase: Policy Deferrals in the Department of State
Minicase: Using Holdbacks to Change Legislative Priorities¿Maryland
Minicase: Herbert Hoover and Legislative Vetoes
Minicase: The National Weather Service Reprogramming
Summary and Conclusions
Useful Websites
CHAPTER 8: Controlling Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
Minicase: Congressional Oversight and the Zombie Apocalypse
Inspectors General
The Politics of Finding Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
Minicase: Louisiana Inspector General
Minicase: President Obama Fires an IG
Minicase: Who Guards the Guards? Not the Guards Themselves
Minicase: Acting IG for Homeland Security¿Too Close to the Department
Minicase: The Massachusetts Inspector General Versus the Governor
Minicase: New York State and Medicaid
Minicase: Baltimore¿s Departing IG
Auditors General
Summary and Conclusions
Useful Websites
CHAPTER 9: Budgetary Decision-Making and Politics
Real-Time Budgeting
A Comparison of the Decision-Making Streams
Common Themes
Reconceptualizing Reform
Avenues for Research
Summary and Conclusions
Useful Websites
Notes
Author Index
Subject Index
About the Author

The Politics of Public Budgeting

Getting and Spending, Borrowing and Balancing