This chapter and the next describe decision-making throughout the year in the life of two archetypal examiners. This chapter focuses on an examiner in a policy-oriented SBO, while the next chapter focuses on an examiner in a control-oriented SBO. To simplify these descriptions and to make them more easily comparable, we assume that our archetype offices are engaged in an executive budget process modeled in Figure 6.1, with a fiscal year that runs from July 1 to June 30. This means that the budget calendar roughly falls in three areas. The new budget is signed by the governor and implemented on July 1, beginning the execution phase of the budget cycle; the adopted budget is implemented throughout the next twelve months, until June 30. The period leading up to early October is called the predevelopment phase (Schick 1983); it marks the period when the agencies are preparing their budget requests for submission to the SBO and when the SBO examiners are conducting their predevelopment analysis. From early October until about mid-January is the intensive budget development phase of the budget cycle. This is the period when the SBO examiners are analyzing the submitted agency requests and SBO recommendations are forwarded to the governor, who sometimes modifies them, and then the governor’s budget proposal is submitted to the legislature for approval, on or about February 1. The legislative phase that follows lasts until the veto override session (if there is one) is finished and the new budget is signed into law. The discussion and analysis in this chapter increase our understanding of the decision-making by

policy-oriented examiners as they develop the governor’s budget recommendations to the legislature through the predevelopment and development phases of the budget process. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of examiner roles in the legislative phase.