THE LIBERTY BLOCK

Budget cut - still a budget increase

 

 

There are at least two reasons that the term 'budget cut' may refer to a year-to-year increase in a given budget: 

 

1) When a government entity asks its governing/oversight body for a massive budget increase from its prior year's budget, the body that oversees the budget may decide to decrease the budget increase. This is often referred to as a 'budget cut'.

 

Example: The Hooksett school board is asking taxpayers to pay over $33 million in 2019, though they spent less than $31 million last year. If the Hooksett budget committee recommends allocating only $32,500,000 to the Hooksett school system in 2019, the budget committee will have recommended a 'budget cut'.

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2) On the federal and state (and some cities) level, every agency/department budget generally increases by around 10% each year, by default. If the government increases the budget for a given agency one year by only 9%, it is considered a 'budget cut'.