Budgeters’ Perceptions of the Scope, Support, and Patterns of Implementation of Performance Budgeting in Texas Cities

Abstract

This study views performance budgeting as a budget innovation, and examines how this innovation tool has been diffused across the largest cities in the State of Texas, emphasizing the scope and patterns of implementation of this innovation in the context of a state with comprehensive performance budgeting legislation. The study also reports the perceptions of city budgeters vis-à-vis the external and internal factors that may support the use of performance measures in budgeting at the local level, using survey data from a sample of Texas cities with population over 50,000. The results of the study reveal that although performance laws set up the general framework for performance budgeting, they do not seem to generate a uniform pattern of implementation. Cities in our sample are found at different stages of performance budgeting implementation, and have developed different patterns of budgetary practices.