Managing for Results:
Strategic Planning and Performance Budgeting
New York Legislature to Begin
Reform Push
Government reform was a significant issue in recent New York State elections,
with legislators returning to Albany intent on
enacting significant changes. In the wake of the latest budget release in
state history and a report earlier this year that called the New York
State Legislature the most dysfunctional legislative body in the country, lawmakers plan to make
government reform a top issue in the next legislative session. Some issues
that may be immediately addressed include procedural rules and budget reform. For more
information, go to:
http://www.rochesterdandc.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041115/
NEWS01/411150315/1002/NEWS
Indiana Streamlining Panel at a
Dead End
The Indiana Government Efficiency Commission -- a panel that has been
searching for months for ways to streamline the state government -- has
found that the impenetrable bureaucracy makes issuing recommendations near
impossible. The commission is scheduled to release its full report
shortly, but preliminary releases show that basic financial information on
state expenditures is too incomplete to allow for any strong conclusions.
The report is expected to recommend some money-saving concepts, such as
restructuring the entire executive branch, but nothing that will
significantly dent the state's $800 million deficit. For more information,
go to:
http://www.indystar.com/articles/8/194071-6638-092.html
The report, when released, can be found at:
http://www.in.gov/legislative/interim/committee/geff.html
Developing and Using Performance
Measures
David Jankofsky, Director of the Arizona Governor's Office of Strategic
Planning and Budgeting, recently presented on Arizona's process of
developing and implementing performance measures in the state government.
This PowerPoint briefing not only provides information on Arizona's
process, but also presents a step-by-step method for tailoring specific
performance measures for any state government. To view this presentation,
go to:
/stateandlocal/david_revised.ppt#13
2004 Best Practices Forum: Show Me
the Measures! - Developing and Using Performance Measures
(January 27-28, Arlington, VA)
As we move closer and closer to a performance-based government, agencies
are focusing on establishing measures and performance plans for the myriad
programs under their supervision. The increased focus on performance moves
hand-in-hand with an important increase in government transparency. One
hurdle in this process has been the creation of efficient measures that
track and communicate program success and accountability. Through the
creation of results-oriented measures, managers can track program success
by adhering to a set of measures to drive the outcomes, strategies and
outputs of their program. The course is part of the Government Performance
Management Certification (GPMC) Program. For more information, go to:
/pi/training/courses/developingmeasures.htm
For more information on the Certification Program, go to:
/pi/training/perfmgmt_index.htm
Finance: State Finances and
Budgeting
California Fiscal Policy Could Lead to
Deeper Crisis
Tapping into the $3.5 billion leftover from the $15 billion borrowed to
help close the projected $6.7 billion budget shortfall may lead to an even
deeper financial crisis in the coming years, warns a California
legislative budget analyst. With pledges of money to education and local
governments (as well as bond payments) coming due in 2006 and very few
available options for fulfilling these obligations, the analyst urged
lawmakers not to tap the leftover bond money to balance the upcoming
budget but save it for next year, when it will be needed more. To read
more, go to:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-budget18nov18,0,2223594.story?coll=la-home-local
State Expenditure Report
The National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) has released a
report on total state expenditures for 2003. The report finds that state
spending totaled $1.1 trillion in fiscal 2003, including both operating
and capital expenditures. Compared to the previous year, that figure
reflects a total spending increase of 4.5 percent, with state funds rising
by 1.4 percent and federal funds by 10.3 percent. Estimates of fiscal 2004
expenditures also indicate 4.5 percent growth in total spending, with
state funds growing by 2.4 percent and federal funds by 9.9 percent. The
low growth in spending from state funds reflects the exceptionally tight
fiscal conditions that states have struggled with recently. To access this
report, go to:
http://www.nasbo.org/Publications/PDFs/2003ExpendReport.pdf
Facing the Fiscal Crisis in State
Government
The Kennedy School of Government has issued its recently revised report on
the fiscal crisis being faced by state governments. The report presents
the problems faced by states after the 2001 recession and the steps states
are taking to improve their financial situations. The original report was
completed last year. The revised edition presents additional data for
the end of 2003 and is up-to-date with data from 2004. To access this
report, go to:
http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/taubmancenter/research/FacingTheFiscalCrises.pdf
Mississippi Delays Release of Budget
Proposals
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has delayed the release of budget
proposals designed to bridge the $1.18 billon budget gap until after the state
legislature has concluded its economic bond package special session.
Preliminary reports point to the partial funding of teacher pay raises,
the furloughing of state troopers, and state worker layoffs as some of the
governor's budget proposals. Currently, reserve funds are running
extremely low and economic growth remains weak. For more information, go
to:
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041115/
NEWS010504/411150345/1002/NEWS01
2005 Best Practices Forum on
Budget-Performance Integration in Government
(February 24-25, Arlington, VA)
Propelled by increased accountability and financial benefits,
performance-based budgeting is rapidly gaining appeal throughout the
government. PBB is the integration and aligning of an agency’s budget
allocations with their performance through the use of predetermined
performance measures. Program managers need to know and understand what
they are truly trying to achieve - end outcomes - and then budget
accordingly. Apply the methodology
from this training to learn how to utilize performance measures to
communicate to your program’s stakeholders and appropriators how you are
efficiently allocating funds to achieve RESULTS. For more
information or to register, go to:
/pi/training/courses/p435/p435_web.pdf
Workforce: Strategic Management of Human
Capital
Illinois Has Lowest Ratio of Employees-to-Residents
Illinois has had the lowest average number of state employees compared to
the state's population than any other state from 1998 to 2003. U.S. Census Bureau data
shows that the state had an average of 161,000 employees in the span,
which breaks
down to 130 employees for every 10,000 Illinois state residents. The
national average is 175 employees per 10,000 residents. Illinois' low
ratio is a product of
souring economic times that forced cutbacks of 4,300 state employees in
the same span that the state's population
increased by about 541,000 people. For more information, go
to:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-govt29.html
Succession Planning and
Implementation
(December 6-7, 2004 - Arlington, VA)
Succession planning ensures that there are highly qualified people in all
positions, not just today, but tomorrow, next year and five years from
now. In the past, succession planning typically targeted only key
leadership positions, but in today's organizations it is important to
include key positions in a variety of job categories. This means that the
kind of behaviors you want to develop and promote may be different than
those in the existing culture. This course will begin with an assessment
of your current workforce and end with the identification of the culture
and the competencies that are required to support an agency of the future.
For more information or to register, go to:
/humancapital/p268/p268web.pdf
Technology: E-Government and Information
Technology
State Homeland Security IT Needs
Further Federal Guidance
Senior federal official said that information technology (IT) for
state and local homeland security programs can be improved and more
effective if the federal government could provide localities with firmer
standards and practices. Federal government CIOs do not feel that specific
industry standards are necessary, rather federal agencies should develop
methods of disseminating information to state governments. Factors crucial
for developing these methods include interoperability, complementary
functions, and sensitivity to the needs of state governments. To read
more, go to:
http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/state-local/27632-1.html and
http://www.gcn.com/23_32/statelocal/27783-1.html
EPA Offers Grants to Join Central
Data Exchange
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is offering state and tribal
governments between $75,000 and $300,000 to join the 13 others already on
the Central Data Exchange. The Central Data Exchange is a nationwide
information systems network that facilitates the electronic reporting and
exchange of environmental information among EPA and state and tribal
partners. State and tribal governments can apply for funding in one of
three categories: Readiness, Implementation, and Challenge. For more
information, go to:
http://www.gcn.com/23_32/statelocal/27785-1.html
Virginia's IT Reform Moves Forward
The Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) has begun to
launch several new projects in the second stage of a reform program that
began after 2003 legislation. So far this year, VITA has consolidated and
integrated small and medium-sized IT programs in state agencies and is
currently working on integrating the larger ones. This merger will bring
91 agency IT operations under VITA's umbrella, totaling 1,497 locations
with more than 60,000 users and 3,000 servers. The consolidation plan also
calls for the development of a statewide customer care center. To read
more, go to:
http://www.gcn.com/23_30/state-local/27553-1.html
Maine Continues to Improve Online
Services and Increases Users
Maine has put many services, such as license renewals, e-tax filing,
document ordering, and payment options, online at
www.SOSonline.org. While
most other states have done this as well, Maine is set apart due to the
extensive use of these services by citizens. For example, 99 percent of
driver record searches and 95 percent of all searches of the Uniform
Commercial Code have been completed online. More importantly, the state
has managed to bring in an average of more than $1.3 million per month in
revenue from its online operations. Maine attributes the high user levels
to business surveys, market studies and direct marketing to citizens,
including the new slogan for SOSonline: "Get online, not in line." For
more information, go to:
http://www.gcn.com/23_30/state-local/27538-1.html
West Virginia to Launch Grid
West Virginia will launch its Global Grid Exchange, an open public
infrastructure that will bring together idle or unused computer processing
power throughout the state. Participants hope that using the Internet to
bring unused computing resources together will create a grid that provides
an inexpensive and common infrastructure for government, academia and
industry. When completed, this grid will be the largest of its type in the
world. For more information, go to:
http://www.fcw.com/geb/articles/2004/1011/web-grid-10-14-04.asp
Procurement: Competitive Sourcing and
Contracting
Florida Cancels Two
Outsourcing Projects
Florida has canceled two significant outsourcing projects that will
severely set back the groundbreaking outsourcing project known as
MyFlorida Alliance. The contracts are with BearingPoint Inc. for data
center services and with Accenture Ltd. for applications management. The
State Technology Office also has asked the Department of Law Enforcement
to investigate improprieties that may have occurred during bidding for
MyFlorida Alliance contracts. The office plans to turn over communications
that occurred between the agency and one of the bidders before the state
issued a solicitation for the program. For more information, go to:
http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/outsourcing/27494-1.html
Strategic Sourcing Gives
States More Options
In this time of severe budget shortfalls, states are looking toward a
proven commercial cost-cutting approach that is known as strategic
sourcing. States are learning how to generate savings by streamlining
their procurement activities with the assistance of private firms. Once
data is gathered and analyzed on what and how a state purchases services,
states are able to consolidate contracts and adopt innovative purchasing
methods. These changes are expected to save $200 million over two years in
Pennsylvania alone. For more information, go to:
http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/19_10/state/24260-1.html
Virginia Advances IT
Outsourcing Initiative
The Virginia Information Technologies Agency has selected three finalists
to advance to the next stage of review for its statewide information
technology outsourcing initiative. The Agency would award the contracts
under the Public-Private Education and Infrastructure Act of 2002. The
act, which was designed to encourage creative financing of education
facilities and infrastructure, allows the private sector more flexibility
and creativity when proposing solutions than is possible in a traditional
request for proposal process. Whether the state will ultimately award the
contracts depends on the outcome of detailed proposal reviews. For more
information, go to:
http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/1_1/outsourcing/25030-1.html
Performance-Based
Contracting in State Government
Performance-Based Contracting (PBC) gives state governments the ability to
achieve citizen expectations while creating crucial cost savings through
direct competition. The Performance Institute offers state specific PBC
courses where attendees will learn how to draft effective performance work
statements, manage and monitor contract performance, and simplify the
selection of performance measures. Attendees will also learn to use the
seven-step method for building an effective performance-based contract.
See the links below for more information on these events or to register.
For Missouri: /pi/training/courses/p442/p442_web.pdf
For Florida:
/pi/training/courses/p359/p359-web.pdf
For New York:
/pi/training/courses/p324/p324_web.pdf
State Government Spotlight: Illinois
The Illinois State Government has
embarked on a series of transformation efforts that have seen vast
improvements in cost -saving business processes. Confirmed results for
FY04 have reached over $350 million. The following are some highlights of
the transformation and results that have been instituted in the Illinois
State Government.
>> Centralized Procurement
Illinois has completely overhauled how it spends taxpayer dollars to buy
the goods and services that make the government function. The State of
Illinois procurement transformation recently received the 2004 Cronin Gold
award from the National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO)
and was cited as a model for others to follow. As the result of a 1-1/2
year old transformation, a new CMS Bureau of Strategic Sourcing and
Procurement (BOSSAP) operates under professional standards and uses best
business practices and innovative techniques to administer State of
Illinois centralized procurement. The documented savings from these
efforts in FY04 were $108 million. The state is on track to achieve a
target of saving $200 million in FY05. Two significant new procurement
processes and practices include an on-line Procurement Business Case
process and an effective new Knowledge Management system that integrates
current data and lessons learned into planning and executing future
procurements.
>> Information Technology (IT)/Telecommunication Restructuring
An effort underway to replace a silo design and management approach to
State of Illinois IT systems and official telecom networks (three in total),
overlapping State agency projects and unnecessarily duplicated IT
functions that inflated costs and made upgrades and wholesale changes
complex. For example, 20 separate State e-mail systems and 80 accounting
systems often could not even talk to each other. Reform, restructuring and
process improvements by the CMS Bureau of Communications and Computer
Services (BCCS) yielded $100 million of savings and cost reductions in
FY04. Tens of millions of dollars in added savings is currently viewed as
achievable in FY05. In telecommunications, going to market-based prices
for state cellular services cut per-minute cell phone charges in half --
from 14 cents to 6.8 cents a minute. One state-of-the-art
telecommunications network has replaced three separate networks. Redundant
and incompatible agency-specific IT projects, staffs and systems are being
merged and managed under uniform standards and a new, strong governance
process.
>> Internal Auditing Model
The State of Illinois adopted an innovative internal auditing model to
drive improved program implementation, compliance with federal and state
laws, internal audit governance, and proactive risk assessment and
management. The changes included an expanded role for internal auditing
based on a business counseling and process improvement model. Illinois
completed an internal auditing consolidation to provide statewide
oversight and more effective multi-agency internal auditing. The internal
audit functions for 46 State of Illinois agencies, boards and commissions
were combined into a single statewide function. In the process, internal
auditing was extended to 20 smaller State of Illinois entities that were
never covered. The staff of managers and chief internal auditors was cut
from 30 to 7, while the number of staff/line auditors increased.
Organizational and fiscal complexity were reduced as the internal audit
staff was housed in one agency instead of 26 and one centrally managed
budget replaced 26 individual audit budgets. As a result, overhead costs
were reduced by more than $2,500,000 (25%) in FY2004.
For more information on these initiatives and other transformation efforts
at the State of Illinois, go to the Illinois Department of Central
Management Services at:
http://www.state.il.us/cms/
President:
Carl
DeMaio
Newsletter
Editor: Vincent Badolato
The State Management
Innovations Newsletter is provided as a free informational
newsletter to all state employees about the latest news from
the state government and independent news media on performance
management.
The Performance
Institute is a private think tank that serves as the nation's leading
authority and repository on performance-based management practices for
government organizations. Its mission is to identify, study and
disseminate the leading management innovations pioneered by
"best-in-class" government programs at federal, state and local levels.
Through its national conferences on pressing issues, interactive executive
training programs, and best practice research projects, the Institute
provides cutting-edge expertise in the design, implementation and
evaluation of strategies to solve operational challenges and enhance
government performance.
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