Policy and Politics in State Budgeting (Bureaucracies, Public Administration, and Public Policy)

398 Pages·2001·2.45 MB·English

by  Kurt M. Thurmaier

Policy
and
Politics
State
in
Budgeting
Bureaucracies, Public Administration,
and Public Policy
Kenneth J. Meier
Series Editor
THE STATE OF PUBLIC ELECTORAL STRUCTURE AND
BUREAUCRACY URBAN POLICY
Larry B. Hill, Editor The Impact on Mexican American
Communities
THE POLITICS OF DISSATISFACTION J. L. Polinard, Robert D. Wrinkle,
Citizens, Services, and Urban Institutions Tomas Longoria, and Norman E. Binder
W. E. Lyons, David Lowery, and
Ruth Hoogland DeHoog CONTROLLING THE BUREAUCRACY
Institutional Constraints in Theory
THE DYNAMICS OF CONFLICT and Practice
BETWEEN BUREAUCRATS AND William F. West
LEGISLATORS
FLIRTING WITH DISASTER
Cathy Marie Johnson
Public Management in Crisis Situations
Saundra K. Schneider
THE POLITICS OF
TELECOMMUNICATIONS ENFORCING THE LAW
REGULATION The Case of the Clean Water Acts
The States and the Divestiture of AT&T Susan Hunter and Richard W. Waterman
Jeffrey E. Cohen
EXECUTIVE GOVERNANCE
WOMEN AND MEN OF THE STATES Presidential Administrations and Policy
Public Administrators at Change in the Federal Bureaucracy
the State Level Cornell G. Hooton
Mary E. Guy, Editor
THE PROMISE OF REPRESENTATIVE
BUREAUCRACY
ETHICS AND PUBLIC Diversity and Responsiveness in
ADMINISTRATION a Government Agency
H. George Frederickson, Editor Sally Coleman Selden
DOWNSIZING
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
THE STATE LEVEL The Managaement of Public Sector
Politics and Progress in Workforce Reductions
Controlling Pollution Vernon Dale Jones
Evan J. Ringquist
THE POLITICS OF SIN THE AMERICAN EXPERIMENT WITH
Drugs, Alcohol, and Public Policy GOVERNMENT CORPORATIONS
Kenneth J. Meier Jerry Mitchell
Policy
and
Politics
State
in
Budgeting
Kurt M.Thurmaier and
Katherine G. Willoughby
M.E.Sharpe
Armonk, New York
London, England
Copyright © 2001 by M. E. Sharpe, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form
without written permission from the publisher, M. E. Sharpe, Inc.,
80 Business Park Drive, Armonk, New York 10504.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thurmaier, Kurt M., 1957–
Policy and politics in state budgeting / by Kurt M. Thurmaier and Katherine G.
Willoughby.
p. cm. — (Bureaucracies, public administration, and public policy)
Includes index.
ISBN 0-7656-0293-8 (alk. paper)
1. Budget—United States. I. Willoughby, Katherine G., 1958– II. Title.
III. Series.
HJ2053.A1 T48 2001 00-053160
352.4’8213’0973—dc21 CIP
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z 39.48-1984.
BM (c) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
We dedicate this book
to Dan H. Willoughby, Jr., and
to the memory of Roland J. Thurmaier
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
List of Tables, Figures, and Boxes xiii
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xix
Acronyms xxi
Chapter 1. Introduction 3
The Purpose of This Research 3
The State Government Setting: Factors Influencing Budgeters’
Decisions 7
Financial Condition 7
Political Factors 8
Organizational Setting of the State Budget Office 12
Personal Characteristics of Budget Examiners 15
State Sample Characteristics 16
Fiscal and Economic 16
Politics, Budget Powers, and Organizational Factors 17
Comparison of the Sample States 20
Interview Methodology 22
Summary: Using This Text Effectively 27
Chapter 2. The State Budget Office and the Budget Problem 30
The Budget Problem: Funding Policies and Programs 30
The Governor’s Budget and Policy Problems 31
Policy Change and the Agenda-Setting Model 34
PAS and State Policy-Making 40
The Treatment of Time and Timing in Decision Models 44
Synthesis of Change Models 46
Incrementalism Models 47
GCM–RTB–Incrementalism Synthesis and Implications 49
vii
viii CONTENTS
The Budget Decision Agenda 52
The SBO as Gatekeeper 54
Flows of Information 57
Top–Down Flows 57
Bottom–Up Flows 59
Coupling Macro and Micro Decisions 59
Development-Phase Decisions 62
The First Decision Level 62
The Second Decision Level 65
The Third Decision Level 66
Execution-Phase Decisions 66
Summary: The Foundations for a Model of Budget Rationality 67
Chapter 3. Budget Rationalities: Effectiveness Decisions 70
Why Propose a Budget Rationalities Model? 70
Is There Such a Thing as Budget Rationality? 71
Toward a Concept of Budgetary Rationality: The Limits
of the ECM 72
Demands of a Model of Budget Rationality 77
Empirical Support for a Model of Budget Rationality 79
Effectiveness Decisions 81
Social Rationality 82
Political Rationality 86
Budget Process: Decision-Making Structures Associated
with Political Rationality 87
Choosing Peripheral Policies and Programs 89
Political Feasibility Frontier 90
The Politics of Substantive Policy Areas 92
Legal Rationality 94
Summary: Conclusions About Effectiveness Decisions 96
Chapter 4. Budget Rationalities: Efficiency Decisions 98
The Efficiency/Effectiveness Cleavage 98
Efficiency Decisions 99
Economic Rationality 99
Technical Rationality 101
The Limitations of Efficiency Decisions 102
The Rationalities Framework 104
Multiple Rationalities at Work 107
Problem Framing: Simplifying Decision Rules to
Reduce Complexity 109
CONTENTS ix
The Rational Analyst and Budget Rationality 109
Budget Problem Representation: Framing Decisions 110
The Credibility of the Issue Framer 118
A Multidimensional View of the Budget Problem 120
Summary: Complex Problems Require Complex Analysis 124
Chapter 5. Budget Office Orientations and Decision Contexts 129
A Typology of Budget Office Decision Contexts 129
Gubernatorial Activism and Policy Influence 131
SBO Orientations 133
Midwestern States 133
Control Orientation 137
Weak Policy Model 139
Strong Policy Model 141
Southern States 145
Control Orientation 148
Transition (Weak Policy) Model 150
Strong Policy Model 151
Policy Distances in State Budgeting 153
Policy Consonance and Priorities 154
Working for the Governor 155
Nurturing a Policy Orientation 159
Affirmation Rates of Examiners 163
Patterns of Communication Flow in SBOs 166
Summary: Policy Problems Become Budget Problems in a
Decision Context 170
Chapter 6. The Anatomy of a Policy-Oriented Budget
Recommendation 173
Shadowing the SBO Examiner 173
The Task of the Policy-Oriented SBO 174
Predevelopment-Phase Analysis 176
Social Facets of Budget Problems 179
Political Facets of Budget Problems 187
Legal Facets of Budget Problems 199
The Effectiveness Framework and Efficiency Rationalities 203
Development-Phase Analysis 206
Technical Rationality 207
Economic Rationality 209
Crafting the Examiner’s Recommendation 211
Simplifying Decision Rules 217