Cool Tools: Profile of Four States Using Performance Budgeting

September 7, 2010 By

We recently found a terrific resource that we wanted to share.

In February 2009 the Government Performance Project and the Pew Center on the States released “Trade-Off Time: How Four States Continue to Deliver.” This report – which you can download by clicking here - profiles how the states of Virginia, Utah, Maryland and Indiana are aggressively using performance management techniques, including performance budgeting, to address the extraordinary challenges they face in funding and service delivery.

From the report:

“The Pew Center on the States has followed state government performance for more than a decade, studying good and bad practices and analyzing what works. Our research has shown that results-based budgeting systems can aid states during economic downturns by cutting wasteful spending on programs that are not showing results, and directing resources to programs that evidence has shown to be more effective. Such an approach also can provide lasting benefits, laying the foundation for a leaner, more effective government during the next economic upturn.”

We’ve repeatedly seen the benefits that come from sharing tools and information – it’s a big part of the reason we have this blog. We hope you’ll be able to take this report and put it to good use in your own organization – and let us know what you learn!

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Blast From the Past: "What Gets Measured Sometimes Gets Managed"

July 29, 2010 By
A little light summer reading: as part of the preparatory work for a new Performance Management Advisory Commission, our Chief of Consulting Services and Innovation, William Aaron, wrote a white paper on best practices in performance management in late 2008.

 

That paper turned into an article in Government Finance magazine, the membership publication for the Government Finance Officers Association. The piece contains numerous examples of our customers’ successes using the tools of Managing For Results to deliver improved results and outlines some of the key ideas behind our approach.

 

We’ve consistently gotten good feedback when we’ve shared this piece, and so we thought we’d post it here. You can download the article by clicking here. Let us know what you think!
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Saving Money with Managing For Results: Chester County, PA

November 16, 2009 By
Congratulations to Chester County, PA, which just earned the rare “triple/triple” — that is, they’ve received the top AAA bond rating from all three of the major government bond rating agencies.

Chester County is one of only 24 counties in the entire U.S. to attain this status, and the only one in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This means that Chester County will save millions of dollars in interest on its bonds in the coming years.

 

“Receiving the highest rating reflects the county’s philosophy of managing for results,” said County Commissioner Carol Aichele.

Standard & Poor’s, which awarded the County a AAA rating last week, highlighted Chester County’s strong management practices including quarterly reports to elected officials and the voting public on budgeted numbers compared to actual results.

You can see the County’s press release here. Congratulations to Chester County!

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Improved Satisfaction & Lower Cost: Success in Maricopa County, AZ

May 9, 2009 By

We all know health care costs only go one direction: up. And by “up” we usually mean “up by a lot.”

But Maricopa County, AZ, has demonstrated that it doesn’t have to be that way – that you can influence that trend, and that you can, in fact, contain costs AND make your customers more satisfied at the same time.

Mike Schaiberger is the Director of the Employee Health Initiatives Program for Maricopa. He has used the tools of Managing For Results to drive a variety of award-winning improvements in the way Maricopa provides health care to its citizens and employees. A focus on how employees access prescription medications, for example, has yielded savings of millions of dollars per year while increasing employee satisfaction with the program.

“The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and the Maricopa County Employee Health Initiatives Department, through Managing For Results, is working to improve the quality of life of all its 26,000 employees and their dependents, as well as Maricopa County’s financial bottom line,” Schaiberger said.

You can read about Maricopa’s remarkable success in a recent article in the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) magazine, Government Finance Review, by clicking here. There’s also a presentation Schaiberger made through a National Association of Counties (NACo) webinar that he’s shared that you can see by clicking here.

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