Introduction to A Symposium on Fiscal Stress,Budget Choices and Cutback Management

Abstract

Understanding how state and local governments respond to and manage fiscal stress, often caused by recession, is important for understanding government decision making in the U.S. This symposium addresses several broadly important questions: what budget cutback strategies state and local governments use to deal with revenue shortfalls; what factors influence state and local governments’ responses to revenue shortfalls; what impacts do budgetary cutback have on government services; and how are cutback decisions made. the symposium contributes to our theoretical and empirical understanding of budgetary choices in times of fiscal distress, and by doing so, to the broader challenges of governance in times of resource scarcity.