George Mason University's Mercatus Center has a new report this week looking at state budget institutions.

Spending growth can contribute to significant fiscal stress, requiring difficult adjustments when large budget gaps arise. Unfortunately, short-term thinking often dominates the adjustment process so that legislators frequently make choices—such as underfunding pension obligations—that improve the short-term fiscal outlook at the expense of worsening the long-term outlook. 

By altering the institutions, or rules, that govern the fiscal decision-making process, policymakers can encourage the sort of long-term thinking that is too often absent from the budgeting process.

That is the point of Washington's four-year balanced budget requirement. Indeed, a balanced budget requirement is one of several budget, legislative, and political processes the report identifies as ways to encourage sustainable budgets. I'm not sure I agree with all of the items in the report — for example, it's not clear that annual budgeting is better than biennial budgeting. But it's an interesting list to think about.