ABSTRACT
The appeal is simple. Rather than making incremental adjustments to the current year’s budget when preparing and adopting a balanced budget for the coming fiscal year, local officials use a budget process that incorporates information on service performance when making allocation decisions. This approach to budget development—commonly referred to as performance budgeting—has made progress in local government since the push for productivity improvement emerged in the 1970s. Progress for this discussion is being defined as the percentage of local governments that have expanded their budget processes to accommodate performance, allowing allocation decisions to be informed by the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery. It is not being defined as budget outcomes, where performance accountability trumps political and financial accountability (Rivenbark and Kelly 2006).
