Everything you ever wanted your elected officials to know about budgeting (but were afraid to tell them).(Book Review)

Memos to the Governor: An Introduction to State Budgeting

Published by Georgetwon University Press

www.press.georgetown.edu 2004; 96 pages; $14.95

Dall Forsythe's Memos to the Governor is an accessible and easily digestible primer on the economic, technical, and political factors of state budgeting, intended for state elected officials unacquainted with the budgeting process. Composed of eight short essays written in memo format, the book makes for a quick read at a slim 96 pages. While not necessary reading for public sector budgeting professionals, budget officers may find it worth their while to pass a copy to newly elected state officials. Local officials may want to take interest as well, as the lessons of Memos are generally applicable to any elected official who engages in budgetary politics in an executive-legislative context.

Forsythe spent six years as budget director of New York, under Mario Cuomo. Memos draws heavily on this experience, detailing budgetary issues through anecdotes and brief cases rather than through a broad-based survey. This experiential focus means that the book does not make any attempt to work on the cutting edge, but is instead content to explain the common practices in budgeting, with an eye on what has performed well in the past. Here the book succeeds in taking the vagaries of topics that new officials may find challenging, such as risk tolerance, incremental budgeting, and structural balance, and paring them down to their skeletal features in a manner that can be easily accessed by elected officials too busy to occupy themselves with the often confusing minutia of creating a budget.

The basics of budgeting in Memos are broadly framed by three topics, which Forsythe feels have received short shrift elsewhere: the impact of the economic cycle on budgeting, long-term strategic budgetary planning, and the tactical challenges of persuading others to adopt a sound budget. What makes these topics particularly unique in this context is that the underlying desire for good government they embody is expressed through political self-interest. Forsythe is forthright about elected officials' motives. Speaking of state legislators in admittedly broad terms, he notes that their two primary motivations in budgetary decision making are avoiding blame and taking credit. His advice to governors, though not as explicit, is couched in similar language.

In writing about developing budgets with the economic cycle in mind, Forsythe presents the problem as a political one: What can be done to assure that government will be able to weather a potential economic downturn between now and the next election? Long-term budgetary planning is equally presented as a means of assuring future political safety. Likewise, Forsythe asserts that ratings agencies and the financial community--groups that represent balanced budgets and "good government"--should serve as allies during budget battles when few other supporters present themselves, a nudge in the direction of sound budgetary policy via political expediency.

Nevertheless, this focus on the self-interested official serves Memos well; not only is the approach a realistic one for its audience, but it also proves that the subjects presented are important enough as to deserve the attention of any public official interested not only in sound budgeting but also in their own success. It also promotes the importance of the professional budget staff in achieving these goals, describing the budget officer as someone who provides technically sound advice and counters the temptation of elected officials to serve their political needs at the expense of good government. Governors, as he states, need people around them who can speak truth to power. Governors, for their part, need to pay attention when budget officers tell them what they don't want to hear, as doing so is often in their fiscal and political best interest.

If the author's essays have a flaw, it is their lack of forward thinking about the field of budgeting. The bare-bones format combined with an emphasis on political success means that while Memos may advocate looking to the future in a strategic sense, it does little to advance public sector budgeting. Performance budgeting, for example, is nearly ignored. Granted only a single concise paragraph, it is presented as a tool that can lead to service delivery improvements but also expose the governor's failings, a description that is unlikely to endear elected officials to performance budgeting.

For the public finance professional, Memos to the Governor may offer little that isn't available elsewhere, and in greater detail. Yet Memos is not without value, particularly as a teaching tool for budgeting neophytes. Those with experience may find the book to be a useful thumbnail guide on how to easily express complex public finance problems to officials, and may themselves find its concise overview of the politics of budgeting valuable. The book's real value lies in what it can teach elected officials. Staff would do well to assure that a copy finds its way to the new governor's--or mayors--desk.

ROB WINKELER is a policy intern in GFOA's Research and Consulting Center He is pursuing a master's degree in public policy from the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy.

Renders are invited to review books of interest to government finance officers. For more information, please contact Peter Christensen, managing editor: at (312) 578-2282 or pchristensen@gfoa.org.

Print Get the Mag Weekly Updates