Offering case studies of financial management in numerous American cities over a period of enormous growth and change, Irene Rubin explores the historical context of municipal budgeting in the United States and the political environment that conditions reform and problem solving at the local level.
Table of Contents
1. Municipal Budgeting in Context
Who Should Read This Book?
Organization of the Book
2. Tax Limits, Protests, and Revolts: The Erosion of Consent
Houston, Texas
San Francisco, California
The State of Ohio
The Great Depression and the Chicago Tax Strike
Proposition 13 and California
3. Evolution of Municipal Budgeting: An Overview
Budget Beginnings: After the Civil War
The Progressive Era: 1895-1915
The Post-Progressive Era: 1915-45
Post-World War II Municipal Budgeting
4. New York City and the Board of Estimate and Apportionment: Making Spending Difficult
Baltimore: A Board of Estimate for Budget Balance and Growth
The New York Bureau of Municipal Research: More Democracy and More Efficiency
Boston: The Evolution of the Executive Budget
Houston: The Commission Form of Government Combined with the Strong Mayor and Executive Budget
Berkeley, California: The Transition from Commission Government to Council-Manager Government
Rochester, New York: From Board of Estimate to City Manager
5. Boards of Estimate and Council-Manager Cities: Current Cases
St. Louis, Missouri
Phoenix, Arizona
Dayton, Ohio
6. Strong-Mayor Cities and Budgeting: Current Cases
Rochester, New York
Tampa, Florida
Boston, Massachusetts
7. The States and Locat Budgeting: The Formative Years
The Importance of State Control and Supervision
Periods of Major Change
8. The States and Local Budgeting: The Modern Period
Oklahoma, Indiana, and Ohio
North Carolina
Other States
9. Conclusion
References
Index
Bio(s)
Irene S. Rubin, Northern Illinois University
Irene S. Rubin is professor emeritus of political science in the division of public administration at Northern Illinois University. She is the author of a number of other books on public budgeting, including Balancing the Federal Budget: Trimming the Herds or Eating the Seed Corn?, Class, Tax and Power: Municipal Budgeting in the United States, and Shrinking the Federal Government. She edited the journal Public Budgeting and Finance for two years and Public Administration Review for three, and was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington in 1996.
