Preparing the Michigan State Budget

Abstract

IN LAW, Michigan has had an executive budget system for over a third of a century.' In fact, the budget office became something more than a one-man (and occasionally part-time) job only after Harold D. Smith assumed the directorship in 1937; and the lack of effective political leadership on the part of budget directors and Governors during the war years that followed Mr. Smith's departure for Washington brought about a situation in 1946 in which the deputy budget director and one chief examiner shared responsibility for over a hundred agencies. Against this background, accomplishments in recent years in making the transition to a modern performance budget appear impressive. The modern period in Michigan's executive budget system began late in 1946 with the appointment of John A. Perkins as director of the Budget Department.2 The fact that Mr. Perkins and his successor, Mr. Landers, the incumbent director of the Budget Division, were young professional administrators with both an academic interest3 and some experience in