Abstract:
Administrative burden is a persistent feature of work for many employed by bureaucratic
institutions, and its relation to the administration of federal funding through the Community
Development Block Grant Program is understudied. This study analyzes perceptions of
administrative burden in 10 CDBG Program Entitlement Communities in the state of Indiana,
and sets out to answer whether administrative burden is felt more strongly at the population
threshold (50,000) presented by Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA). This hypothesis, that
burden will be felt more strongly in communities near the MSA, is refuted through the analysis
of current community conditions, which includes population, poverty, each community’s
experience working with CDBG funding, and the types of programs they fund, including the
amount of funding they disburse in their community. These facts were then cross-analyzed with
a survey sent out to each community’s CDBG program administrator. Ultimately, it is found that
proximity to the MSA population threshold does not determine levels of administrative burden
perceived by the administrative professionals. Administrative burden is shaped through some of
the variables included in this study, but each community has a unique response to each variable,
and not one variable explained higher or lower reported levels of burden. The variables that were
analyzed, among other community development variables, may provide more context as to what
causes a higher level of perceived burden for one community, but this study supports that the
perception of burden is shaped by the unique context of the community and the administrator’s
individual experience.
