A model for communicating the budget process.

• Author: Kraft, Bonnie Ridley

Editor's note: This article presents a commentary on the book Memos to the Governor: An Introduction to State Budgeting by Dall W. Forsythe (see accompanying sidebar). The book is available for $9.95, plus $3.50 shipping and handling, from Georgetown University Press, P.O. Box 4866, Hampden Station, Baltimore, MD 21211-4866 (800/246-9606).

The view of the world from the perspective of the government finance professional is by necessity and design very different than from the perspective of elected policy makers. In fact, through the eyes of the finance officer, political decisions can seem as unpredictable or erratic as tiddlywinks on a marble surface.

Dall W. Forsythe's book, Memos to the Governor: An Introduction to State Budgeting, is written with the newly elected official in mind as the target audience. At the same time, it provides a unique opportunity for the finance professional, particularly the budgeteers among us, to shake off some of the technical and accounting dust from our boots and observe the sheen of policy making through the eyes of the policy maker.

Memos is written in an easily understandable, informal format consisting of a series of memoranda from an experienced practitioner and advisor to a newly elected governor. Thus, it presupposes only a basic level of understanding of budgeting and a minimal knowledge of financial management. Nonetheless, it offers insights into governmental budgeting at all levels, from the smallest local government to huge state budget departments.

Initially, the practitioner will cringe at the flagrantly political tone of the book. Forsythe makes no bones about the relationship of budget decisions to the upcoming election. This emphasis on campaign promises and the proximity of the next election can tend to ignore the long-term good of the organization and community, and this inherent contradiction is not lost on the author. He advises against shortsighted budget decisions, albeit still within the context of the next election, warning that poor long-term fiscal planning can get a governor unelected at least as quickly as failure to invent fiscal quick fixes to implement campaign promises.

Any budgeteer who has observed and suffered through the birth and development of this most important policy document called the budget has despaired at some time or another at the convoluted processing endured by this seemingly straightforward account of future expenditures and revenues. After all, it is not just a financial report. The GFOA's own budget orientation awards program recognizes it as a policy document, and that makes it ultimately within the purview of the policy makers and the public. As painful as that can be to the purest number-crunchers among us, the fact remains that is where it ought to be.

So how can a book...