When a budget is drawn up, there is always a difficulty in striking a balance between the burden that can be put on individuals and companies in the form of taxes and the requirements that have to be met by way of expenditures. There is also a conflict in terms of the individual revenue items, and also in terms of priorities between the various categories of expenditure items.

The book Democracy with Sequential Choice and Fund Voting discusses fund voting in terms of drawing up a budget (see article Budgets).