Week 4: Budgeting as Policy Making

• Discuss memo #2 and selection of agency/department

• What is policy making in the context of budgets?

• Application of Kingdon model of policy making to budgeting (Thurmaier and Willoughby)

• Role of state budget offices

• Budget and policy making in local government

• Guest Speaker -- Cheryl Stewart, Department of Finance

– Life in DOF and their role in policy making

• Preview of Week 5

Policy Making and Budgets

• How are the authors for this week’s readings defining the word “policy” in the context of budgeting?

• What are example of non-policy budget decisions?

The Kingdon Model of Policy-making

• Purpose:

– how do issues rise and fall on the agenda?

– how do agendas translate into policy?

– how can non-incremental change be explained?

• Key feature: distinction between agendas (problems) and alternatives (policies)

– different processes

– different participants and roles

– Major challenge to linear models of policy making!

The Kingdon Model: Components

• Three streams or processes– problems (agendas)– policies (alternatives, solutions)– politics

• Two types of participants– visible cluster (dominate agenda and political streams)– hidden cluster (dominate policy stream)

• Window of Opportunity– predictable, e.g. elections, budget process– unpredictable, e.g. natural disaster

Kingdon Model: Policy Change

• Three streams must converge

• Being on agenda is necessary but not sufficient

– need solutions and ripe political conditions

• Role of the policy specialists

– form communities and work on alternatives

– look for opportunities to match to problems

• policy entrerpreneurs

– bring the solutions together with problems

– importance of framing

Kingdon Model Applied to Budgeting:Thurmaier and Willoughby

• key concept: understanding budget problems as policy problems

– not a question of economic efficiency but values

– allows application of Kingdon

• how do budget issues get on the agenda?

• how does budget policy get made?

• State Budget Offices play a key role

– gatekeepers

– how do they make decisions? (micro model)

Different State Budget Office Orientations

• Control orientation

– Compile agency requests

– Don’t question policy orientation

– Budget execution emphasis

– Far removed from Governor’s policy staff

• Policy orientation

– Analyze agency proposals against Governor’s policy

– Develop alternatives

– Proactive on major policy/budget issues

– Focus on agency mission and effectiveness

– Closer involvement with Governor’s policy staff

Policy-oriented Budget Offices and Policy Change

• Budget analysts are like Kingdon’s policy entrepreneurs

– nexus of macro and micro budgeting

• manage top down and bottom up information flow

– bring together problems, solutions, politics

– part of “hidden” cluster of actors (institutional memory)

– two major deadlines provide windows

• Skills used

– efficiency analysis: technical/economic

– effectiveness analysis: political, social, legal

Bland and Rubin: Local Budgeting

Discussion question:Bland and Rubin argue that failure to openly deliberate the policy issues behind budget decisions impedes progress and is undemocratic.

1. Discuss both charges (impede progress and undemocratic)2. Are they suggesting, in contrast to Thurmaier and

Willoughby, that delegating the majority of levels 1 and 2 budget decisions to budget staff is undemocratic?

3. Is there a reason that local and state processes should differ in this respect?

Local Budgeting (v State)

• More constrained—less discretionary

• Less political executive influence

• More managerial/staff-driven

– city manager drives budget

– mayor policy positions not very public

• More expectation for direct citizen access and participation

• More or less ideological?

Preview of Week 5

• Kettl -- excellent and very readable

• Think about “rationality”

– what does it mean?

– can/should budgeting be rational?

• Weekly email question

• Memo #2 due: need to decide on agency or department for class assignments