The Intersection Between Planning and the Municipal Budget

The Fiscal Dimensions of Planning effort sponsored by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is intended to help practicing planners and students of planning understand the fiscal context and consequences of planning activities. To partially address this goal, a series of papers has been developed addressing several key fiscal concepts or tools that can be used to increase understanding by practicing planners or students of planning. This Working Paper is the first in the series of papers developed for the Fiscal Dimensions of Planning effort. The paper discusses how the practice of planning intersects with local government budgets using a conceptual framework of how various planning activities interact or affect local government budgets. The purpose of this framework is to illustrate the mind-set needed by planners as they go about their daily business of planning. This is followed by a more detailed discussion of the various activities undertaken by planers and a descriptive analysis of how these activities affect the local government budget. The paper concludes with a discussion of several special topics that need to be understood by planners as they attempt to incorporate the fiscal side of planning into their work, and, an overview of the broader Fiscal Dimensions of Planning effort.