Budget Reform in St. Louis: Why Does Budgeting Change?

Abstract

Budget reforms have washed over U.S. cities at odd intervals. In the 1880s and 1890s, budgeting began either in the controller's office or with a group of officials commonly called a Board of Estimate. In the early 1900s, the executive budget reforms took shape, with increasing authority for the formation of the budget proposal located in the mayor's office. In the late 1960s, the emphasis was more on program budgeting and technical analysis for allocating between competing programs. More recently, cities have been integrating the goals orientation of management by objectives (MBO) and the evaluation focus of performance budgeting into their budget formats and processes. The major changes that have occurred over the last 20 years have been dramatic. They call attention to the fact that public administration knows very little about when budget reforms get adopted and why. This article explores the question of why these dramatic changes in municipal budgeting have taken place.