Definition of budget padding

Padding the budget means making the budget proposal larger than the actual estimates for the project. This is done either by increasing a project's expenses or decreasing its expected revenue. The goal of budget padding is to get an approval committee to grant an artificially high level of funding to the budget maker's proposed project. There is some contention over the exact definition of padding: some contend that inflating expenses to take expected inflation into account is responsible foresight rather than padding, while others see any increase beyond current estimates as padding.