The article deals with the questions of reforming the budget sector: an increase in the number of types of state and municipal institutions, and a corresponding change of mechanisms of their budgetary financing. The authors identify the main stages of the reform; analyze the specifics of each of them; examine the current state of the reform: problems, risks occurred in the course of its implementation. One of the risks is a threat of discontinuing the reform.  Its sign is a steady decline in the level of economic independence of the autonomous institutions after making a number of amendments to Federal Law "On autonomous institutions". The decline is primarily associated with the norm of Law № 83-FL (№ 83-ФЗ) for the establishment of the procedure of developing and adopting a plan on financial and economic activity of an autonomous agency by its founder.
Development proposals for the reform:  1) the adoption of the Federal law setting out a new look at the system to be transformed. This Act inevitably contains a lot of poorly defined, obscure notions and reference standards, according to which taking decisions on some relevant questions “is authorized” to the federal, regional and municipal bodies of power. Then while the Law is being implemented some of its statutory concepts and mechanisms are clarified and specified; 2) a preliminary development of a fairly detailed concept or development program of reform. Though there are obvious benefits in it, there is still a danger to drag on discussing methodological problems without passing to a real change. This threat is quite real, yet it can be removed if there is a political will and a careful, clear organization of work on the preparation of the concept.