Soon after his election in 1995, Kentucky governor Paul E. Patton instituted a plan to restructure the commonwealth's system of postsecondary education to create a more efficient system designed to prepare Kentuckians for jobs in the new era. While Patton looked at all of postsecondary education, he focused on the 29 community and technical colleges distributed across the state, many close enough to compete for students and funds. The legislation enacted to combine these community and technical colleges is known as the Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997 or House Bill 1 (HB1). HB1 established the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS), which joined 14 established community colleges and 15 postsecondary technical institutions, first into districts and later into 16, two-year comprehensive colleges (KCTCS 2008). KCTCS has organized its work through solid planning, including three strategic plans implemented during the past decade: 2000-05 (KCTCS 1999) and 2006-10 (KCTCS 2005) and 2010-16 (KCTCS 2009). Strategic planning within KCTCS is a broad-based, inclusive process that promotes participation at all levels. Budgets are tied to the strategic plan throughout the system. This article reports a case study which explicates how the KCTCS approaches budgeting.