Inside the budget process.

AuthorKerns, Peggy
PositionBudgeting: Politics and Power - Book review

"Budgeting: Politics and Power"

By Carol W. Lewis and W. Bartley Hildreth

Oxford University Press

384 pages; $44.95

ISBN-13:978-0195387452

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

It's tough out there in the budgeting world. Writing, reading, analyzing and voting on a state budget can be grueling, tedious and painful.

Carol W. Lewis and W. Bartley Hildreth, however, make this complex subject easier to understand. This is not a dry and deadly "how to" guide on different procedures in the various states, nor is it a boring, bombastic book on budgeting.

With depth and often humor, the authors tackle the subject in a substantive and nonacademic way. Although written primarily for the college classroom, the book is valuable for staff who crunch the numbers, budget committees who wade through the details, and elected officials who make the decisions. And it is particularly significant to help an often ill-informed public understand the politics and power plays that influence how budget decisions are made.

In addition to the text, each of the 10 chapters includes graphics, a case study, a tightly written thumbnail, website resources, questions for discussions and even an occasional cartoon. Snoopy appears in Chapter 1 sitting on his roof in the rain lamenting that "Every time there's a good suggestion, someone brings up the budget." How true.

Government budgets are built around values. Budget writers don't start with a certain amount that must be spent. They start with the priorities of the...

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