Governança do orçamento de São Paulo revisitada pós 2014. Da escassez à sobra de recursos

Abstract

This article discusses the budgetary governance of the municipality of São Paulo, which is affected by historical, institutional, political, and economic dimensions. Based on a set of data on income, expenditure, and staff structure, collected for the period 2003 to 2023, as well as interviews with key players in budgetary governance, the aim is to analyse the municipality’s current budgetary situation. This analysis highlights how changes in some of the essential elements of São Paulo’s budgetary governance, such as the incrementalism of spending and the level of scarcity, have led to a significant increase in the political discretion of the chief executive. These two elements are analysed together with others such as the complexity of budget rules, the bureaucratic hierarchy, and the dispute between budget governance actors to try to understand the difficulty in effectively implement this budget discretion in the recent period, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic.