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Zero-base budgeting and mental health programs

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Abstract

Zero-base budgeting is riding the crest of the current wave of concern for accountability and the wish for greater efficiency and effectiveness in government. One of the fundamental appeals of zero-base budgeting is that it requires each budget to be justified in its entirety, rather than only the increment above an established base. The vehicle for organizing a program budget into incremental steps from zero is a series of “decision packages.” As did the program planning and budgeting system before it, zero-base budgeting presents the mental health manager with many problems. Two issues in particular (i.e., the information required for the decision packages and a possible paradoxical result of ranking the decision packages) are discussed in detail.

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Authors
  1. Paul R. Binner
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Additional information

Paul R. Binner, Ph. D., is Senior Research Scientist, Denver Research Institute.

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Binner, P.R. Zero-base budgeting and mental health programs. Administration in Mental Health 5, 162–171 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00820760

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00820760

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