Exploring explanations of state agency budgets: Institutional budget actors or exogenous environment?

Abstract

Budgetary incrementalism argues that three institutional actorsFagencies, executive budget offices, and legislative committeesFdominate budget outcomes. The complexity and interdependency of public programs expands this expectation to include the influence of exogenous budget factors. Findings from a survey of state agency heads reveal that budget environments do inluence state agency budget outcomes. However, the institutional budgetary participants, especially governors and legislatures, envisioned in classical incrementalism retain their principal and primary influence on state agency budgets. A significant departure from classical incrementalism is that agencies are not as influential as previously depicted. © 2008 Public Financial Publications, Inc.