In the words of Allen Schick, “Budgeting always has been conceived as a process for systematically relating the expenditure of funds to the accomplishment of planned objectives” (Shafritz & Hyde, 2012, p. 197). V.O. Key Jr. proposed a question that many within the realm of budgeting have tried to answer and that is, “On what basis shall it be decided to allocate x dollars to activity A instead of activity B?” (Shafritz et. al., 2012, p. 109). Some of the ideas that have been proposed by budget theorists are allocation, Planning Programming & Budgeting (PPB), management by objective, zero based budgeting, and cutback budgeting. V.O. Key spoke of a budget where funds needed to be allocated. V.O. Key sought to ascertain what determinations …show more content…
He believed that if you reduced the size of the government then you reduce the size of the problem, thus creating “cutback budgeting”. It was more of a management style of budgeting with a goal to reduce spending while increasing revenue, and changing budgeting processes to meet fiscal constraints. As we have seen, the reoccurring pattern of not agreeing on what programs should be cut, congress an the president failed at attempts to make automatic spending cuts,. The text explains that cutback budgeting, “was not intended to be a budget system; it was a process. Its objective was to fuse political economic realities with management strategies that would reestablish in the public’s mind the value of public sector programs and services” (Shafritz et. al., p. 175). As we review each reform/attempt in answering Key’s question it becomes obvious that the budget process is politically driven by society. This wavering of opinion could be why budget reforms have failed in the past. The Bible does not necessarily give us directions on how to prepare a budget, however, it does give us important principles to live by. For example Proverbs 13:11 talks of resisting actions to receive a hasty income; Proverbs 22:7 talks of avoiding the bondage of credit; Proverbs 23:4 warns us from overestimating or being preoccupied by creating wealth. Each elected official feels the need to reexamine and readjust the budget process on the basis of public opinion. To me, no reform is better then the other. Each technique has brought something new to the table and the budgeting processes that we use