New Pew Report Shows How States Can Stabilize Economy
A new Pew Center on the States report shows how four states - Indiana, Maryland, Utah and Virginia - are using the downturn in the national economy as an opportunity to rethink how state government does business. These states are making policy and budget decisions based on how government programs measure up. The states are making smarter budget decisions as a result, according to the Pew Report.
“States that make good budget decisions now can help stabilize the economy, soften the impact of the crisis on families, and spur a recovery that benefits the entire nation,” said Susan Urahn, managing director of The Pew Center on the States. “In the midst of economic downturn, there is an opportunity to re-think how to run state government.”
And that's the purpose of the report, called Trade-off Time: How Four States Continue to Deliver.
The trend toward “performance-driven budgeting” is growing. Thirty-nine states now include performance measures in agency budget requests, and 42 states report some level of these measures online; 22 legislatures reported using performance measures in their budget decision making, according to recent budget analyses.
- Utah introduced four-day work weeks with 10-hour days, saving the state an estimated $3 million in energy costs, and saving state employees $6 million in annual commuting costs. Other benefits: Constituents can access state services before and after their own workdays, traffic is down, and employee sick day and annual leave usage has even dropped 9 percent.
- Virginia saved nearly $1 million by replacing private food service contracts at several prisons when calculations showed that the services could be provided more cheaply in-house.
- Indiana employed performance-driven budgeting practices—which measure the results achieved for every tax dollar spent—to identify cuts to ineffective programs as well as areas that required increased investment to succeed, such as the state’s department of child services.
- Maryland implemented StateStat, a data management system that monitors 10 major departments, to identify where to trim to achieve savings and better results. Consequently, the state closed an under-capacity juvenile justice detention facility, saving the state $1.5 million. Of that money, $600,000 was reallocated to less expensive community-based youth initiatives which use evidence-based family therapy and education programs proven to be more effective than incarceration.
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