An Engaging Opportunity: The Promise of Enhanced Public Engagement for Priority-Based Budgeting

Priority-based budgeting (PBB) has emerged as a strategic approach for local governments to allocate limited resources. Advocates of PBB highlight the objective nature of prioritizing organizational programs according to their alignment with overarching goals. Still, the acts of goal identification, goal alignment assessment, and resource allocation all involve subjective assessment based on public values. Since there are few legal requirements beyond standard public hearings to involve the public in this process, public engagement strategies vary. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of public engagement on PBB reallocation outcomes. Specifically, this study analyzes the impact of various degrees of public engagement upon reallocation during different stages of the process for 32 municipalities. The data demonstrates that public engagement in the PBB process varied in degree and stage of application. The analyses indicate that enhanced public engagement during the prioritizing and allocating stages dramatically increased reallocation, but not during the early goal-setting stage. While enhanced public engagement generally increased budgetary reallocation, the distinct findings in different budgetary stages demonstrate that not all engagement is worth the same.