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The Politics of Public Budgeting
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The Politics of Public Budgeting
Getting and Spending, Borrowing and Balancing

Ninth Edition

Other Titles in:
Public Budgeting

February 2019 | 408 pages | CQ Press
Using a “power struggles” theme to examine the dynamics of budgeting, The Politics of Public Budgeting shines a bright light on the political jockeying between interest groups, parties, officials, policymakers, and the public. Bestselling author Irene S. Rubin explains budgeting changes over time by setting issues like the federal deficit and health care expenditures in political and comparative context. The Ninth Edition offers students recent examples of public budgeting from all levels of government, emphasizing the relationship among them. Analyzing each strand of the decision-making process, Rubin shows the extraordinary coordination involved in passing a budget and achieving accountability.
 
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: Louisiana—Getting 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 Carolina's Legislatively Dominated Budget Process Begins to Budge

 
Minicase: The Executive and the Legislature in Florida's 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: Iowa's 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 greatest strength [in the text] is the inclusion of politics in the budgeting process, which is a key element that is often overlooked or understated in other budgeting books.”

Joseph Martin, JD, MPA
University of Missouri

“[The Politics of Public Budgeting] discusses the impact of separation of payer and deicer, multiple actors, and openness to the environment.”

Sharon K. Vaughn
Western Kentucky University

Great Text. Thank you!

Mr Andrew J Sturmfels
Political Science Dept, Sonoma State University
March 10, 2022

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