First, the capital-improvement/capi

First, the capital-improvement/capital budget process presumes a continuous cycle of reappraisal and revaluation of project proposals. The cycle is necessary because the world changes, causing substantial changes in the value of public projects. Unfortunately, many processes regard established priorities to be unchangeable, even in the face of difference project costs and different project demands. As Howard points out. “Too often cost fluctuations do not generate a reassessment of priority ranking; original rankings are retained despite the fluctuations.” In a related manner, the time a project has spent in the priority queue sometimes establishes its priority rank; all old project proposals have higher rankings than any new ones. That approach makes no sense because time alone does not improve the viability of a margina! project. Indeed, item entering the priority queue some year before may have outlived their usefulness or may have been superseded by adjustment made by people and markets by the time they reach the funding point. Again, the problem can be resolved by maintaining reviews of projects in the capital-improvement program.