Policy Change: Refocusing Local Government Budgets in Response to Covid-19

The pandemic has led to changes in governance and public policy at the central government and local government levels. There are challenges associated with changing public policy in the fiscal policy sector. Local governments are required to carry out budget refocusing of local revenue and expenditure budgets to support activities to deal with the pandemic. This article aimed to describe policy changes of refocusing budgets and identify their determinants from the perspective of public policy studies. In the study of public policy, the opening of a policy window can determine the direction of policy changes in the policy agenda. To be able to open a policy window, mutual agreement and common interest are needed between problem streams, political streams and policy streams. The results of this study demonstrated that policy changes have occurred by refocusing the budget, due to the opening of the policy window, where interests among various streams were equalized. Keywords: budget refocusing, fiscal policy, local autonomy, policy change, public finance