By Neal Peirce
WASHINGTON -- We’ve all seen the stories: some publicity-hungry magazine or web site grabs a bunch of statistics and then purports to “rate” American states on measures ranging from “livability” to child care centers, tax climates to quality of schools.
But there’s no “rate and run” character to the grading of the 50 state governments’ management performance unveiled March 3 by the Pew Center on the States in collaboration with Governing magazine.
Clear ratings are there -- Utah, Virginia and Washington with the highest (A) scores, New Hampshire in the basement with a dismal D+, and other states (see map below with figures) in between.
But these evaluations are a far cry from fast guesswork and statistical alchemy. A joint process team of academics, Pew researchers and Governing magazine journalists scoured the country for documentary evidence of states’ budgets, workforce plans, auditor’s reports and official web sites.
Interviews were conducted with some 1,400 state officials and expert outside observers. And to probe angles, develop insights, and debate final grades, the team engaged in extensive debates.
In stark contrast to “rate-and-run,” notes Neal Johnson, the Pew Center’s project director, he and his associates are now offering to sit down with gubernatorial and legislative staff from each of the 50 states for a free consultancy on ways they can improve their management performance -- plus using the experiences in other state to overcoming political obstacles to real reform.
The direct assistance represents a clear ramping up of the Pew Center’s work to transfer best practices, state to state, in the four areas it focuses on -- budgets and finance, management of employees, computer-based and related information systems, and planning for roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
Across the country, Johnson argues, “more governors are taking the mechanics and management of state government seriously than in the past 20 years” -- among them Tim Keane (Va.), Mitch Daniels (Ind.), Jennifer Granholm (Mich.), Christine Gregoire (Wash.), Ted Strickland (Ohio) and Sonny Perdue (Ga.)
Granholm, appearing at the Pew Center release event, noted that globalization’s blows, especially to the auto industry, had cost Michigan 400,000 jobs since 2000, triggering severe budget deficits. But “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste,” she said: “Instead, it’s a huge opportunity to make management changes that would otherwise be impossible.”
So she’s consolidated departments, eliminated some agencies, and holds weekly meetings at which cabinet and other officials are held accountable for meeting goals ranging from economic development to infrastructure repair. A “fix it first” road policy, to repair “rather than paving the cornfields,” has increased roads rated in good condition from 60 percent to 92 percent.
Granholm boasts that Michigan’s state web site is now America’s best. Individuals and companies can go online to perform many transactions, and the site uses a mix of blogs, surveys and video streaming to engage and inform citizens.
Perdue tells how he persuaded CEOs from 15 Fortune 500 firms in Georgia to develop 90-day actionable best-practices that would fit in government. Among the results: $100 million savings in state procurement purchases, and driver’s license waiting time reduced from as much as two hours to 10 minutes.
There’s also a welcome “high-tech, high-touch” element to Georgia’s reforms -- redoing the state citizen call-in system to require “warm” (i.e., real person on the phone) transfers so a caller gets personal help locating the agency or office he or she really needs.
In stark contrast to the heartening achievement stories, New Hampshire officials reacted in sour fashion to their D+ and being told it’s “a myth that New Hampshire’s fiscally conservative state culture creates frugal but fit government -- no taxes, no frills, no problem.”
“We are the envy of other states; I’m offended that some out-of-state group would criticize our system of government,” fumed Gov. John Lynch.
But the Pew-Governing crowd had done its homework, identifying a Granite State system of “meager cost and performance information and tortuous business processes.” Plus, said the report, a pattern of “underfunding and lack of clear priorities for buildings, bridges and roads” that leaves the state “with ‘killer’ deferred maintenance problems and positively pre-modern infrastructure.”
New Hampshire’s is not the only laggard. New Jersey has huge fiscal problems including no apparent way to pay for a stunning $58 billion long-term bill for state worker retiree benefits. California is praised for reviewing (after decades of inattention) its long-term infrastructure needs, but faulted for having a “dysfunctional” state personnel system. Other states with “C” or “C-” grades include Massachusetts, Maine, Illinois, Arkansas and Alaska.
The good news is that the Pew crew is not only combing the country for varieties of better management practices, but finding many. In the long run, that creates new standards the laggard states will find it hard to ignore.
But there’s no “rate and run” character to the grading of the 50 state governments’ management performance unveiled March 3 by the Pew Center on the States in collaboration with Governing magazine.
Clear ratings are there -- Utah, Virginia and Washington with the highest (A) scores, New Hampshire in the basement with a dismal D+, and other states (see map below with figures) in between.
But these evaluations are a far cry from fast guesswork and statistical alchemy. A joint process team of academics, Pew researchers and Governing magazine journalists scoured the country for documentary evidence of states’ budgets, workforce plans, auditor’s reports and official web sites.
Interviews were conducted with some 1,400 state officials and expert outside observers. And to probe angles, develop insights, and debate final grades, the team engaged in extensive debates.
In stark contrast to “rate-and-run,” notes Neal Johnson, the Pew Center’s project director, he and his associates are now offering to sit down with gubernatorial and legislative staff from each of the 50 states for a free consultancy on ways they can improve their management performance -- plus using the experiences in other state to overcoming political obstacles to real reform.
The direct assistance represents a clear ramping up of the Pew Center’s work to transfer best practices, state to state, in the four areas it focuses on -- budgets and finance, management of employees, computer-based and related information systems, and planning for roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
Across the country, Johnson argues, “more governors are taking the mechanics and management of state government seriously than in the past 20 years” -- among them Tim Keane (Va.), Mitch Daniels (Ind.), Jennifer Granholm (Mich.), Christine Gregoire (Wash.), Ted Strickland (Ohio) and Sonny Perdue (Ga.)
Granholm, appearing at the Pew Center release event, noted that globalization’s blows, especially to the auto industry, had cost Michigan 400,000 jobs since 2000, triggering severe budget deficits. But “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste,” she said: “Instead, it’s a huge opportunity to make management changes that would otherwise be impossible.”
So she’s consolidated departments, eliminated some agencies, and holds weekly meetings at which cabinet and other officials are held accountable for meeting goals ranging from economic development to infrastructure repair. A “fix it first” road policy, to repair “rather than paving the cornfields,” has increased roads rated in good condition from 60 percent to 92 percent.
Granholm boasts that Michigan’s state web site is now America’s best. Individuals and companies can go online to perform many transactions, and the site uses a mix of blogs, surveys and video streaming to engage and inform citizens.
Perdue tells how he persuaded CEOs from 15 Fortune 500 firms in Georgia to develop 90-day actionable best-practices that would fit in government. Among the results: $100 million savings in state procurement purchases, and driver’s license waiting time reduced from as much as two hours to 10 minutes.
There’s also a welcome “high-tech, high-touch” element to Georgia’s reforms -- redoing the state citizen call-in system to require “warm” (i.e., real person on the phone) transfers so a caller gets personal help locating the agency or office he or she really needs.
In stark contrast to the heartening achievement stories, New Hampshire officials reacted in sour fashion to their D+ and being told it’s “a myth that New Hampshire’s fiscally conservative state culture creates frugal but fit government -- no taxes, no frills, no problem.”
“We are the envy of other states; I’m offended that some out-of-state group would criticize our system of government,” fumed Gov. John Lynch.
But the Pew-Governing crowd had done its homework, identifying a Granite State system of “meager cost and performance information and tortuous business processes.” Plus, said the report, a pattern of “underfunding and lack of clear priorities for buildings, bridges and roads” that leaves the state “with ‘killer’ deferred maintenance problems and positively pre-modern infrastructure.”
New Hampshire’s is not the only laggard. New Jersey has huge fiscal problems including no apparent way to pay for a stunning $58 billion long-term bill for state worker retiree benefits. California is praised for reviewing (after decades of inattention) its long-term infrastructure needs, but faulted for having a “dysfunctional” state personnel system. Other states with “C” or “C-” grades include Massachusetts, Maine, Illinois, Arkansas and Alaska.
The good news is that the Pew crew is not only combing the country for varieties of better management practices, but finding many. In the long run, that creates new standards the laggard states will find it hard to ignore.
No comments:
Post a Comment