Public Policy and Administration 230 Public Budgeting and Finance Professor Nancy Shulock Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs CSUS Course web site:

Week 1: Introduction and Course Objectives Introductions and information ( addresses) Review syllabus What is public budgeting? Budget formats Federal/state/local budgeting History of budgeting Budget theory Contemporary context of public budgeting Sample budgets Preview week 2

Public Budgeting: Definition Donald Kettl: Decision about how much of society’s resources we want to take from the private sector to use for problems of broader public interest

Functions/Disciplines of Public Budgeting political (political science) economic (economics) accountability/control (business) managerial/administrative (public administration) organizational (organization theory)

Budget Formats line item -- emphasize control –pushes policy into background –minimizes conflict program budget -- emphasize policy –what should government do –requires more analysis performance budget -- emphasize management –productivity of specific tasks, not overall goals –administrative outcomes

Federal v State/Local Budgeting Federal: –economic and political perspectives –expenditure driven –entitlements –defense State/Local: –organizational and administrative perspectives –revenue driven –more unified executive control

History of Budgeting Congressional dominance –no executive leadership –could not respond to change Presidential dominance –Executive Budget Movement –Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 President’s budget OMB Present -- Stalemate –Congressional Budget Act of 1974 Budget committees CBO

Budget Theory Theory: a framework for accumulating knowledge Normative, descriptive, positive –normative -- what should be –descriptive -- what is –positive -- what will be (predictions) V. O. Key 1940 question in search of normative theory: “On what basis should it be decided to allocate X dollars to activity A instead of B”

Budget Theory -- cont. Wildavsky –normative theory impossible -- utopian –descriptive theory: incrementalism how decisions are made how strategies selected main theory today but partially discredited Rubin: field lacks good theory –need to merge political and technical –recognize importance of process –complexity of disciplines

Contemporary Context of Public Budgeting The New Public Management: Accountability for outcomes Flexibility Decentralization Deregulation Performance Measurement

Sample Budgets State of California, Governor’s 2001/02 Budget – tm City of Sacramento 1999/2000 Budget –

Preview of Week 2 Begin Rubin Chapters 1,3, 4 Memo assignment (refer to handouts for sample of memo- writing style) –Organization –Clarity –2 pages maximum! Class notes from today will be posted on web Listserv will be set up

Sample Questions Rubin states that “budgets provide a powerful tool of accountability to citizens who want to know how the government is spending their money….” Does this assume too much interest or capability on the part of the typical citizen? Does the Congress, in the case of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) or the California Legislature, in the case of the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) really see these agencies as non-partisan? Isn’t there always some value injected into an analysis?