1. Budget Legislation

Once the budget has been prepared by the various agencies, it is often moved forward to the legislative body for authorization. The legislation process can result in unintended outcomes and restrictions.

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Search the internet and news reporting services for a story on an unintended outcome of interest to you and answer the following questions:

•  How did politics shape the outcome in unexpected ways?

•  Did “pork” spending or “apportionments and allotments” budget amendments affect the legislation?

Did a mid-year crisis or change in revenue expectations substantially impact the budget legislative action?

2. Performance Budgeting

Performance budgeting has been attempted at the local level in recent years. Address the issues of performance budgeting while answering the following questions: What attributes of performance budgeting make it particularly suitable to local government budgeting? Will the same attributes be as useful at the federal level?