budget size fixed suppose that the budget director is to advise the legislature either congress or city council how best to allocate a given sum say 1 billion between two expenditure projects x and y the problem may be likened to that of the head of a consumer household who must allocate the family budget. first the director must determine the cost c involved in providing each service and the benefit b to be derived therefrom. then outlays must be allocated between x and y so as to derive the greatest total benefit from the budget, i.e., to maximize the sum of net benefits or the excess of total benefits over costs with giveen by the size of the budget, the task is simply to maximize