ABSTRACT
I. Introduction............................................................................................................ 464 II. The key question.................................................................................................... 464
A. Reformers and pragmatists ............................................................................. 464 B. Jeffersonian budgeting ................................................................................... 465
III. Economics-based budget reforms ......................................................................... 466 A. Classic performance budgeting...................................................................... 466 B. Program budgeting ......................................................................................... 468 C. Program budgeting and the relationships between activities,
outputs, and outcomes ................................................................................... 472 D. The impact of program budgeting ................................................................ 474 E. Zero-base budgeting (ZBB)............................................................................ 475 F. Performance budgeting................................................................................... 475
IV. An example of a contemporary performance budgeting system: Louisiana ....... 479 A. Contemporary performance budgeting elsewhere in the U.S. ..................... 481
V. Software tools ......................................................................................................... 482 VI. Conclusions ............................................................................................................ 484 References........................................................................................................................ 485
Today all levels of government are using a variety of budgeting techniques and research methodologies. Relatively inexpensive and common computing tools permit these budgeting and analytical techniques to be used quickly, accurately, and less expensively than would have been the case only a few years ago. Computer tools also permit great improvements in the production and dissemination on the Internet of budgetary information transparent to the public and their legislative
and news media representatives. However, important lessons learned in relation to the budgetary techniques need to be applied.
