Rebudgeting in Czech towns

Abstract

About one-fifth of municipal budgets is approved during the course of the fiscal year through budget amendments. The aim of this paper is to explore the rebudgeting process in medium-sized Czech towns in regard to its magni-tude and character. Budget data are analysed for all 95 towns with 10 to 30 thousand inhabitants as well as infor-mation about the approved budget amendments and responsibility-sharing arrangements in 13 towns in 2012. Our analysis shows that the rebudgeting process is different for revenues and expenditures. Most of the revenues are included in the revised budget as soon as they materialize and the volume of the collected revenues is in line with the revised budget. On the other hand, substantial expenditure changes are approved through the budget amend-ments but the real spending is very close to what was originally budgeted for all types of expenditure. The com-parison of the praxis in the individual towns shows significant differences among them regarding the number of budget amendments, their extent and the arrangement for sharing responsibility between the municipal council and the commission.