Incremental budgeting is the most common approach to municipal budget development, where each year's budget starts from the previous year's base and adjusts for inflation, known changes, and approved new initiatives. Rather than justifying every dollar annually, departments propose changes (increases or decreases) from the established baseline. This approach is practical and efficient—it doesn't require comprehensive program review annually—but has drawbacks: it may perpetuate historical spending patterns that no longer reflect current priorities, makes it difficult to find savings for reallocation, and can lead to gradual budget growth without critical examination. Incremental budgeting contrasts with zero-based budgeting (justifying all spending from zero annually), priority-based budgeting (ranking all programs by priority), and outcomes-based budgeting (linking resources to measurable results). Most municipalities use incremental budgeting with periodic comprehensive reviews of specific programs or departments.