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Budgeting for Contracting in Local Government
Author(s) -
RUBIN IRENE
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
public budgeting and finance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.694
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1540-5850
pISSN - 0275-1100
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5850.2006.00836.x
Subject(s) - clarity , business , local government , outcome (game theory) , government (linguistics) , term (time) , balanced budget , budget constraint , finance , economics , public administration , microeconomics , political science , politics , biochemistry , chemistry , linguistics , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , law
While the amount of contracting out seems to be leveling off, the number of larger, long‐term contracts seems to be increasing. Such contracts are generally not well described in local budgets. Recent efforts in some cities to shift to more outcome‐oriented performance budgeting should push toward more clarity in reporting on major contracts in the budget. This article examines how a handful of major cities handle contracts in their budgets—in some cities contracts are omitted from the budget or all merged into one budget line—and makes some suggestions for improvements.