Customer Reviews

The Price Of Government: Getting the Results We Need in an Age of Permanent Fiscal Crisis

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I enjoyed reading this book even though it is very very repetitive. I thought the book contained some great data on the price of government. It also had good analysis and explanations on why the price of government varies between states. The analysis on why government is in the fix it is quite good. The book is weak on the solution part. Their concept has never been successfully implemented. Those with budgeting experience will understand why once they read the book. For managers on a local level the book does really appreciate the effect state and federal mandates have on government operations.

The book was successful in provoking some thought about basic budgeting assumptions. The book is a worthwhile read provided you don't expect it to offer a workable process to solve budget problems.

This book is about our future--the one we can have if we choose the difficult path of dramatic change. The authors present a convincing argument that we don't have to choose between higher taxes or service cuts. There are great opportunities for getting more from government services with the taxes we are willing to pay. The authors lay out a blueprint for pursuing those opportunities starting by radically changing the way governments do budgeting. The success stories are compelling. This is stimulating reading to anyone interested in getting better results for the dollar. I loved the chapter on politics and the argument for leading from the radical center.

There is no question today that governments-at all levels-are in dire fiscal straits. Years of political maneuvering, wasteful spending, mismanagement, and an economic roller-coaster have taken their toll. While wonderful innovation has been seen in a number of government agencies at the federal, state, and local level, most have a very long way to go. The resistance to change must be overcome if we are to avoid widespread bankruptcy of the very organizations that we, as taxpayers and citizens, rely on for shared services and support. Change is a community effort, not just something to be delegated to a few elected or appointed officials. But the work to be done is akin to hugging a hippopotamus...especially if the animal doesn't want to be hugged!

The authors are consultants-which could be considered good news or bad news. In this case, it's good news. They are founder and senior partner of Public Strategies Group, a firm specializing in the field of improving government. Osborne is author of the best-seller, "Reinventing Government." These authors have the credentials that cry out how valuable their book might be.

The five sections of the book organize their huge volume of information, commentary, and advice: Smarter Budgeting, Smarter Sizing, Smarter Spending, Smarter Management, and Smarter Leadership. Through fifteen chapters the authors describe what's been happening, the impact, what changes could-or should-be made, and what benefits will result. There are no illustrations in this book-a few charts; it's straight text in page after intriguing page. Tremendous content that can be absorbed in a straight-through read or studied in a reference book fashion.

Community leaders will find an incredible amount of material to work with in these pages. The question is how many communities will have sufficiently strong and committed leadership-political and apolitical-to overcome the resistance of tradition and self-serving turf protection in order to bring about critically needed change. If you can build the community resources to make the needed improvements, this book will be a real treasure for exploring opportunities and finding wise solutions.

The PRICE of GOVERNMENT:
Getting the Results We Need in an Age of Permanent Fiscal Crisis


There is no doubt that money needs to be well-spent, especially when discussing money managers such as our state and national government officials. As a "customer" of this government, I'm looking for solutions, yet finding more problems. The Price of Government not only identifies those problems, but offers solutions. The premise remains the same- what are Americans willing to pay for the services that we need?

The authors review not only America's history of taxation, but introduce components from other sources. Such sources are countries where governmental systems are more effective than ours, and sometimes also citing an example of ineffectiveness followed by review and suggestion. Overall, this book is a valuable source for those who have an interest as to where their tax dollars are being spent. The authors suggest that all Americans should be more well-informed before they vote. After reading many reviews of this text, I believe the authors may wish to re-visit this idea. America wants results. There is a great deal of practical suggestions about moving toward a practical performance-based system. I believe that we are beginning to see this and use of the internet helps average citizens gain information we would not have had access to a decade ago.

What I especially enjoyed about this book was that it wasn't just shock and awe... we're going downhill heading for doom, etc. The authors state the obvious- that we've spent more than we have and there needs to be accountability for the money customers provide. I refrained from overusing the word taxpayer because the book does address ways to use these concepts in other arenas, making it a valuable tool not only for elected officials, health care and educational employees, but to business as a whole. The introduction jumps right in and offers a "prescription" to help save this sinking ship. In short, the authors compel government to "get a grip" on the problem, figure out how much taxpayers are willing to help with the problem, determine priorities and then allocate funds for those priorities until money is gone. Being in the middle of an educational administration program has exposed me to several similar texts. Often, reorganization is the focus to solve existing problems. These authors drew me in from the get-go, but the following quote sums up their philosophy well!

Native Americans have many sayings, and one of the wisest is this: "When you're riding a dead horse, the best strategy is t dismount. You don't change riders. You don't reorganize the herd. You don't put blue-ribbon commission on veterinarians. And you don't spend more money on feed. You get off and find yourself a new horse. "(Page 19)

To begin identification of the problem they look at demographics- an aging population with longer longevity and decreased population growth. In short, healthcare and social security problems have caused a deficit in the budget on a huge scale. The authors suggest budgeting for outcomes- determine what is really important, and then figure out how much it will cost and then buy it. I liked how they state to "use indicators that make sense to citizens". (Page 72) Often, schools report test scores but do not explain how they are interpreted. The authors suggest planning for outcome goals and including indicators of that success. They identify the difference between budgeting for Outcomes and performance management. The example of the child welfare agency being rewarded or punished based on child abuse cases solidifies the definite difference of the two. (Page 89)

In the consolidation chapter, the authors remind us that historically, American government reacts to a crisis through reorganization. Two examples sited are the loss of a child causing the child welfare system reform and Homeland security being developed after September 11th 2001. Reorganization is not always bad, but it not always what the organization needs either. I like how the book relates well to the educational system. Suggesting that schools be held accountable to achieve these goals set by the system would increase motivation to ensure child success. We are beginning to see this in charter school enrollment rising and some states having the option to voucher tax dollars toward private schools. The concept of "rightsizing" looks at whether or not the service is still needed, how efficiently those working in that area are doing their work and what can be done about it. If the service is still needed but time is wasted, for example completing tedious paperwork or signing time cards that the supervisor doesn't manage suggests looking at technology to streamline the work to be done.

Too often with new elected officials we saw their friends, companies and associates hired under their administration. The result was usually less than optimum effectiveness. Osborne and Hutchinson suggest competition to save the price of government from rising. Competition keeps prices low. To further stimulate effectiveness and efficiency, the authors suggest rewarding those involved. If the contractor winning the bid completes a job early and under budget, then a portion of the surplus goes back to the taxpayers while a portion goes to the workers as well. The authors claim that not only does this reward workers, but it improves morale of the workers and boosts the public faith in their government. I especially liked the suggestion they based from evidence of forgeign countries. "Shift public workers into private firms taking over the work... Require that contractors pay comparable wages and benefits..." (Page 161) These are but two examples, showing us that this could work. We could move public jobs into the private sector, without losing the quality of life they had established.

"Smarter customer service" is a chapter most of us could benefit from. It brings to light the things we too often do without question. In turn, wasting the company's money and driving costs up for customers. The example of signing time cards of people you don't personally watch was a perfect example. Yet, government needed to respond to a situation years ago in order to save money. Re-evaluate the needs of the organization. The 311 system empowered citizens while holding officials responsible for their departments. The quality must improve to improve the processes. The 311 telephone system brought performance data to a new front while keeping costs low through consolidation. By being more effective, costs are cut for departments, onto governments and maintaining if not lowering the price of government for citizens

They offer insight to many different aspects, focused on the key programs. They also offer practical suggestions and offer ways to deepen what they present, citing very good websites such as www.FirstGov.gov and www.irs.gov/efile. Systems working together will better align the system. The authors suggest in education of current employees for better efficiency as well. The focus should be on the results of the objectives, not solely the money, claiming the authors. They remind us to stay focused on the core objectives, as to not get lost in the activity. They suggest moving power into the hands of the employees, in essence creating "an organization of leaders" (page 322).

All in all, this book is not only very useful, but easy to read as well.

The authors of this book clearly describe the current atmosphere of permanent fiscal crisis at every level of government. They describe certain trends that are scary, such as the ever-growing cost of healthcare/Medicare.

Then they lay out a practical approach that is different from the normal budgeting process. What's great is that they speak as practitioners, having done actual consulting and having seen the fruits of this approach. This is very different from the ultimately empty rhetoric of most books on "fixing government" which might sound great but are usually completely theoretical, since the books are usually written with a "this ought to work" mindset, as opposed to "this is what has worked."

This is a another great book written by David Osborne, with practical, yet out of the box ideas on balancing government budgets. A great process that can be emulated by public administrators to focus taxpayer dollars on the most important programs and services. It challenges administrators to go beyond hacking away at every program budget until all the programs are barely running on a shoestring and no one is getting the results that taxpayers want.

The Price of Government was written by the same pair of government officials that brougt us the original primer Reinventing Government: How The Enrepreneurial Spirit Is Transforming The Public Sector. The authors, David Osborne and Peter Hutchinson, are both long-time state government officials that tried to place their ideas for better governing into books. This one alleges to find ways to make government more accountable and efficient in what the authors called the "age of permanent fiscal crisis." The moniker is commentary on the federal budget deficit that has limited value in the book that principally uses examples from state, municipal and city government, all of which must have balanced budgets every year. This oversight is the first of many in this book and hardly the most blatant.

Osborne and Hutchinson traverse now familiar territory in five sections called "Smarter Budgeting," "Smater Sizing," Smarter Spending," "Smarter Management" and "Smarter Leadership." Each section has a few chapters focused on the authors' ideas backed up by examples some municipality, state or the federal government used. By now, many of the ideas proposed in the book -- from schools of choice to zero-based budgeting (or putting all your priorities in a list and funding them from the top down, then quitting when you run out of money) have been discussed, dissected and even tried by governments all over the place. As a 27-year state government employee in big human services state departments, I found no idea in this book that hasn't at least once been discussed or tried by government.

Many of these ideas have found their way into the daily lexicon of government and have even found useful purpose. In the chapter the promoted schools of choice, the authors generally promote the concept that government should do what people want done -- and do it in ways where people can most easily understand it and even do it themselves, like registering to vote online or buying your license plates online. Their discussion in chapter six of "rightsizing" involves what they call "the right work, the right way with the right stuff." In the next chapter, "Buying service competitively," they go after another of government's foils -- no-bid contracts and contracting with only a couple private companies to do things like clearing snow in the winter from the roads, providing foster care services, or better waste water treatment service.

All these ideas sound good until you go to work in government and find out why they don't succeed. The first reason is the most obvious, one the authors failed to address and overcome in their final chapter on politics: government is inherently political, and politics has constituencies, constituencies put pressure on politicians to do things, and politicians must be re-elected every two, four or six years. There is a second reason these ideas fail that is even more acute: government must serve all the people all the time, not just those that vote, provide financial support to politicians, or put pressure on politicians. A third reason is almost as telling: government budgets are always developed in line items and use last year's budget as the baseline.

When the new budget comes out, putting in a new line item or -- gasp! -- eliminating a line item is almost impossible because it has a constituency. Even in the most revolutionary political (the cliche is "sea") change in political leadership, politicians must still maintain commitments to all the old constituencies. This is why Obama's programs to save America from financial ruin ran the deficit up so much -- he still had to support the huge military build-up from the Reagan, Clinton and Bush years, support the two wars the country was already in, support the huge national highway construction and repair programs we were undertaking, and support everything else that was already in place.

Every time I saw something I thought new, adventurous or clever in this book, I wondered wny the two authors -- both experienced state government officials -- consistently failed to understand these realities about government. The idea that someone can come new to government and totally change the direction of spending and support is preposterous. Every program in government has a constituency and every constituency needs the service. If a Democrat replaces a Republican and gets rid of tax cuts to support his or her new programs, the new time a political change takes place the Republican will reinsitute the tax cuts and reduce some of the programs put into place by the predecessor. This is simply the realities of government at all levels. But the even greater reality is that every service has a constituency, that service is there because the constituency desperately needs it, and getting rid of the service, however easy it may seem or however reasonable that may seem, is almost impossibly difficult.

While The Price of Government has been read and consumed by just about every government official at every level of government in the United States, and some of its precepts and ideas have been tried out and/or put into place, the relative naivete of the authors makes the book more of a think tank manifesto than genuine guide to more efficiently redesign government. For until such day as government is no longer an elected entity in our nation, its participants -- from elected officials at the highest level to citizen advocates to lobbyists to the most bottom drawer bureaucrat -- will continue to work from the status quo and move outward as citizens support it. Yet, when they step over the line and eliminate something too dogmatically sacred, the citizens will react by voting in the other party and the proverbial pendulum will swing back the other way. These are the realities of governing in the United States.

The timing for this book couldn't be better - an era of skyrocketing deficits, an aging population (boosting pension outlays), inexorable increases in healthcare costs (fewer workers with health insurance, aging population), and businesses increasingly threatening to move elsewhere unless they receive tax relief.

Simply cutting budgets accomplishes little - as Osborne points out, it does nothing to improve areas retained. In addition, service recipients or proponents (usually providers) simply complain ad naseum until an opportunity to restore funding occurs (eg. tax increase or economic upturn) presents itself - thus setting the stage for the next crisis.

Osborne is also correct in pointing out that the most common budget "cures" are simply illusions - accounting gimmicks (timing "games" regarding outlays and receipts, fudging estimates, temporarily ignoring voter mandates), borrowing, and delaying maintenance.

At this point, however, Osborne goes off the track by proposing some intelligent-sounding changes in approach (eg. identify the results wanted), and proceeds to go through a lot of razzle-dazzle that simply ends up with "business as usual."

Using Washington state as an example, Osborne cites how a citizens group decided to focus on providing more early-childhood-education and implementing skill-based pay for teachers - neither a "REAL" result. During the last 30+ years innumerable education "improvement" programs have been funded, while progress has been non-existent - eg. scores by 17-year-olds on the National Assessment of Education Progress (the only unchanged large-scale test in the nation) have remained unchanged, as have drop-out rates. This, despite a more than doubling of inflation-adjusted per-pupil spending in the last 30 or so years. As for "skill-based" teacher pay, study after study has found that - after taking into account pupil differences - payment for EXISTING "skill-set" programs (teacher experience or degree levels) contribute little (only the first few years of experience) or nothing to pupil achievement. So why add another dubious dimension? If one needs any more evidence, consider the fact that most private schools only cost about half that of public schools.

Universities are another major State-level expenditure; like K-12 education, MAJOR overhaul (not rethinking budgets)is required. Since the early 1990's, professors' teaching workloads have been reduced from three classes per semester to two. Nationally, and undoubtedly in Washington also, the length of the academic year shrunk from 191 days in 1964 to only 156 in 1993. Meanwhile, only 21 cents of every funding dollar goes into the classroom - the number of non-teaching professionals (eg. counselors) has increased from 3 per instructor in 1976 to 6 in 2001. Returning to those recent productivity levels, substantially reducing admissions of the roughly half unable or unmotivated to graduate, and shortening the average 5+ years required to graduate would allow savings of about $500+ million/year in Arizona and it is assumed that similar opportunities exist in Washington.

As for healthcare, Osborne's Washington process suggested dropping coverage for low-income workers - an ACCOUNTING GIMMICK that simply transfers the costs to providers, and adding more clinics. However, what is really required is a review of incentives and other care drivers - eg. the highest-spending areas in the U.S. spend about 60% more on Medicare recipients than the lowest, despite access to care and patient outcomes being better in the low-income areas. A second problem is that healthcare providers are REWARDED for their errors - payors need to insist on adherence to quality standards. A third major problem is that care recipients have no incentives to conserve - Health Savings Accounts (allowing cashing out of any funds remaining from a set amount) do so.

Clearly Osborne's work would be more useful if it focused on outcomes - both good and bad. Associated with that should also be a discussion of benchmarking (staffing levels, compensation for staff, and benefit levels), and continuous improvement goal-setting that emphasize reducing waste and improving quality "Toyota-style" - keys to success in the private sector.

The "bottom-line" is that the focus should not be on the budget process, but on permanent reform of the biggest consumers of government funds - education and healthcare.

This book is the best information guide, to anyone who is a part
of their CITY,COUNTY,OR STATE budget system faceing a crisis in
this trying era of our country,It's detail spells out the planning on how to best help the budget,system.It is easily
read and to understand.Very well thought out,and will be very
benificial if followed.

R.H."BOB" PUNG SR

This book offers a different approach for governments to prioritize their spending. It may not work for every body, but will provide a new way to decide where to put tax dollars to match tax payers priorities.