Budgeting in the States Institutions, Processes, and Politics

Subjects:

• Political Science » State & Local Politics
• Economics » Economics (General)

Reviews:

• Sixteen papers characterize formal executive-legislative relationships across states and examine several informal factors that help governors and legislators overcome institutional weaknesses and increase their leverage over budget decisions. Papers discuss budgeting in the statess--institutions, processes, and policies.
  —Journal of Economic Literature March 2007
• A good way to take the pulse of a state's priorities and its political, demographic, and economic trends is to look at its budget. Clynch and Lauth introduce 16 chapters examining the contentious process involved in budget and policy-making. Building on the framework they presented in Governors, Legislatures and Budgets: Diversity Across the American States (1991), they overcome deficits in both aggregated data and single-state studies by presenting in-depth, single-state studies developed within a common framework and timeframe. To the mix of gubernatorial and legislative authority, they add the complicating factors of political party controls, court decisions, voter initiatives, and rational budget reforms instituted by most states.
  —Reference & Research Book News February 2007
• State budget processes in the US, although following approximately the same general template, have many individual features, and they work in differing political contexts. The essays that Clynch and Lauth have assembled for this volume track these differences and what they have meant for individual state finances in the last two decades....These authors give outstanding insights into how budget procedures operate; how institutions and demographics in states influence the process and outcomes; how political balancing shapes state finances; how process reforms arrive and then fade in government operations; and how states manage shocks to their economic systems. They demonstrate again how states can operate as insulated chambers of experimentation in the American federal system and how many different ways a responsible and responsive fiscal system can be constructed. Highly recommended. Graduate, research, and professional collections.
  —Choice 2/1/2007

Table of Contents:

• Acknowledgements
  Budgeting in the States: Institutions, Processes, and Policies--Edward J. Clynch and Thomas P. Lauth
  California: Revenue Scarcity, Incremental Solutions, the Rise of Citizen Initiatives and the Decline of Trust."--Jerry L. McCaffrey
  Georgia: Shared Power and Fiscal Conservatism--Thomas P. Lauth
  New York: The Growth, Waning, and Resurgence of Executive Power--Dall W. Forsythe and Donald J. Boyd
  Connecticut: Public Scarcity and Private Wealth--Carol W. Lewis
  Illinois: Constitutional Versus Negotiated Powers--Douglas R. Snow and Irene S. Rubin
  Oregon: The Influence of Direct Democracy on Budget Outcomes--Bill Simonsen
  Florida: Ebb and Flow in Executive-Legislative Relations--Robert B. Bradley
  Kentucky: The Executive/Legislative Budget Role Transition Continues--Merl M. Hackbart and James R. Ramsey
  Nevada: Budgeting at The CrossroadsPaula D. Yeary
  South Carolina: Executive Budgeting Brings A Stronger Gubernatorial Voice to the Table--Cole Blease Graham, Jr.
  Virginia: Expenditure Increases, Tax Cuts, and Budget Deficits--James K. Conant
  Wisconsin: Institutions, Processes, and Policies--James K. Conant
  Mississippi: Changing Gubernatorial-Legislative Dynamics in Budget Decision Making.--Edward J. Clynch
  Texas: The Use of Performance Data in Budgeting and Management--Robert L. Bland and Wes Clarke
  Utah: "Economics, Political Culture, and Priority Setting"--James J. Gosling
  Budgeting in the States: Innovations and Implications--Edward J. Clynch, Thomas P. Lauth, Barbara A. Patrick