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About William (Bill) Duncombe -- Foreword / by Jeffrey D. Straussman -- Preface / by Robert Bifulco Jr -- Lecture 1. Introduction to budgeting and public finance -- Lecture 2. The basics of budget preparation -- Lecture 3. The use of cost accounting to improve budgeting -- Lecture 4. Getting control of your budget : the use of cost analysis in budgeting -- Lecture 5. Budget review and approval -- Lecture 6. Federal budgeting process -- Lecture 7. Budget execution and control -- Lecture 8. Capital budgeting and debt management -- Lecture 9. Revenue forecasting and evaluation criteria -- Lecture 10. Consumption taxes -- Lecture 11. Local property taxes -- Lecture 12. User fees and charges -- Lecture 13. State government lotteries

This study develops a methodology for examining the impact of court orders on local budgets and applies it to one of the most important areas of judicial involvement‐local jails. During the 1980s an increasing number of local jails came under court order due to overcrowded facilities. In many counties this has been matched by equally rapid growth in jail capacity and expenditures. Based on simple comparisons of these trends and case studies of individual counties, previous research on court intervention has concluded that the courts have forced reluctant local governments to increase expenditures on corrections. However, past research on judicial intervention may be misleading because of inadequate controls for other factors that may affect both jail capacity and spending. We examine the determinants of jail spending for a national sample of jails in the mid‐1980s. Our results indicate that court orders influence capacity expansion (their impact on current expenditures is less clear); however, other jail and demand factors may have a stronger effect. Contrary to conventional wisdom, our findings suggest that many jurisdictions, given adequate fiscal resources, budget for jail expansion when they need its not when forced by the courts to act.

Examines the effect of federal court orders on reducing local prison overcrowding in the 1980s; focus on finance; US.

Over the past 20 years, an extensive literature has focused on the role of courts in shaping public policy and management. Yet despite the continuing interest in the topic, very little "hard" evidence exists on the actual impact of court interventions in public agencies. The objective of this study is to estimate the impact of court orders and mandates on public programs in one of the most important areas of judicial intervention, local jails. The authors' findings for a national sample of jails in 1983 and 1988 confirm that court orders do influence the decision to expand the capacity of local jails. However, other jail-related factors—the level of overcrowding and jail age-actually have stronger impacts on the probability that a jurisdiction will decide to expand capacity than does the presence of a court order. These results imply a reconsideration of the conventional wisdom that court orders force reluctant elected officials to vote for unpopular capital projects, such as jails. The authors' findings indicate that many jurisdictions, given adequate fiscal resources, are likely to plan for capital expansion when they need it—not when forced by the courts to act.