My choice for Best Budget CMS for 2012 (and the one that will be my #1 recommendation in this category until next years awards) is CMS Made Simple!
CMS Made Simple™ is an open source ( GPL) package first released in July 2004. Its built using PHP that provides website developers with a simple, easy to use utility to allow building small-ish (dozens to hundreds of pages), semi-static websites. Typically it is used for corporate websites, or the website promoting a team or organization, etc. This is where it shines.
As my choice for this year, when asked to offer suggestions for the best budget CMS, I will point to CMS Made Simple. They will receive my recommendation from now until next year’s winner is announced. Congratulations!