Gold Star
The February 2005 issue of Governing magazine graded state governments. Utah and Virginia shared the top spot. Being a fan of Virginia’s ability to plan and prioritize, it is an honor to be regarded as its contemporary in sound governance.
Calling Utah “perhaps the nation’s most information-driven state,” Governing observed:
If Utah’s planning process has suffered a minor case of overkill, however, the benefits of its overall approach have never been clearer than during the past couple of fiscally challenging years. Compared with budget debates in other places, those in Utah have been laced with hard statistics, not just anecdotes.
These are kind words, especially coming halfway through a general session – the point when I (and probably much of the public) start to wonder if we do anything right.
The House and the Senate have been digging into the facts, and we should start rolling out budget bills this week – a bit earlier than normal in an attempt to avoid fat-ladling at the end of the session. The thing I like the most about the House is that we are willing to take on tough issues. This year, there is no shortage of tough issues.
For example, HB 213 (Unused Sick Leave at Retirement Amendments), HB 109 (Information Technology Governance Amendments), and paying for transportation needs with cash instead of credit are complex, important issues. On all 3, we could take a pass. We could go home in a few weeks and tell our constituents what a great job we did, and few people would beat us up for not taking action in any of these 3 areas. Many people would even praise us for not messing with their program in any way. But all that would accomplish would be to push these mushrooming problems into the future.
I don't think we'll do that. At least, I hope we won't. As the Governing article states, we do have hard data at our fingertips. When our research suggests we need to act, we typically do.
Calling Utah “perhaps the nation’s most information-driven state,” Governing observed:
If Utah’s planning process has suffered a minor case of overkill, however, the benefits of its overall approach have never been clearer than during the past couple of fiscally challenging years. Compared with budget debates in other places, those in Utah have been laced with hard statistics, not just anecdotes.
These are kind words, especially coming halfway through a general session – the point when I (and probably much of the public) start to wonder if we do anything right.
The House and the Senate have been digging into the facts, and we should start rolling out budget bills this week – a bit earlier than normal in an attempt to avoid fat-ladling at the end of the session. The thing I like the most about the House is that we are willing to take on tough issues. This year, there is no shortage of tough issues.
For example, HB 213 (Unused Sick Leave at Retirement Amendments), HB 109 (Information Technology Governance Amendments), and paying for transportation needs with cash instead of credit are complex, important issues. On all 3, we could take a pass. We could go home in a few weeks and tell our constituents what a great job we did, and few people would beat us up for not taking action in any of these 3 areas. Many people would even praise us for not messing with their program in any way. But all that would accomplish would be to push these mushrooming problems into the future.
I don't think we'll do that. At least, I hope we won't. As the Governing article states, we do have hard data at our fingertips. When our research suggests we need to act, we typically do.
posted by steve u. at 2/07/2005
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