Budgetary Balance: The Norm, Concept, and Practice in Large U.S. Cities

The idea of budgetary balance is crucial to contemporary municipal budgeting in the United States. A concise metaphor for good government and a symbol of fiscal integrity and prudence, budgetary balance is pressed into service as a simple, summary measure of overall capacity to govern. A recent article in the CPA Journal notes, “The requirement of a balanced budget for governments is widely acclaimed as a means of achieving fiscal prudence and economy” (Granof and Mayper 1991, 28, italics omitted). An article published by Moody’s Investors Service proclaims budgetary balance to be “the key urban challenge” for this decade (Kennedy 1991, 1-7).