Slide 6 of 84

All of these functions are critical to the operation of government. Indeed, a leading expert in governmental budgeting, Allen Schick, has written

It is no exaggeration to state that the capacity to govern depends on the capacity to budget.

A governmental unit, whether state or local, that cannot carry out the basic functions of budgeting—keeping spending within available revenues and allocating that spending in a fashion that reflects the demands of its constituents—will, sooner or later, find itself unable to manage any of its affairs.