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Dayton
Business Journal...
Gov.
Kasich
rolls out reforms
Thursday,
June 21, 2012
Note: This
is an op-ed piece from Timothy Keen, director of the Ohio Office of
Budget and
Management.
An
unprecedented, top-to-bottom review of state agency operations and
programs,
launched by Ohio Gov. John Kasich only months after passage of his
historic
Jobs Budget in 2011, has produced hundreds of common-sense reforms that
reduce
the cost of government and revitalize Ohio’s ability to keep and
attract jobs.
By
challenging his cabinet agencies with this review, the governor has
broken a
long tradition in which state government waited two years between
biennial
budgets to analyze agency spending, programs and policies in such
detail. He
was determined as well that this would not be an exercise in mechanical
across-the-board cuts, but rather a thoughtful, deliberate process that
would
carefully weigh the specific needs of each state agency and the
citizens it
serves.
The result
has been the most thoroughgoing budget and policy review, outside of
Ohio’s
traditional two-year budget-setting cycle, that I have experienced over
my more
than 25 years of involvement in state budgeting. And it’s starting to
pay
important dividends for every Ohio taxpayer.
To begin
with, the governor and his cabinet directors identified ways to cut
more than
$113 million from agency budgets in the next fiscal year, while making
significant changes that streamline government operations and improve
delivery
of services. Many reductions and reforms — including those focused on
state
healthcare and human services programs — have been enacted by the
General
Assembly in House Bill 487, the Management Efficiency Plan, which was
signed by
Governor Kasich on June 11.
Additional
legislation incorporates other mid-biennium reforms affecting
education, energy
policy, tax reform, workforce development, veterans’ services and
cost-saving
tools for local governments and schools.
The
Management Efficiency Plan includes hundreds of efficiencies and
reforms to
reduce costs and streamline government programs. A few examples
demonstrate the
wide range of these reforms:
• Merging
the Ohio School Facilities Commission and the State Architect’s Office
into a
new Facilities Construction Commission will reduce costs, align related
authority and consolidate resources within a single agency to oversee
all the
state’s non-transportation construction.
• After an
in-depth review of laws and policies affecting its programs, the
Department of
Developmental Disabilities made numerous recommendations for
improvement that
help the department and its local-agency partners provide better, more
efficient services.
• Combining
Department of Natural Resources programs for recycling, litter
prevention and
scrap-tire regulation with similar efforts in the Ohio EPA will
eliminate
costly duplication and provide more efficient efforts to protect Ohio’s
environment.
These and
other efficiencies from the Mid-Biennium Review build on reforms
contained in
Governor Kasich’s Jobs Budget, the state’s biennial operating budget
passed in
June 2011. That budget returned Ohio to a sound fiscal footing by
closing a
projected $7.7 billion structural imbalance and setting aside $247
million last
year in the Budget Stabilization Fund (Ohio’s “rainy day” savings
account,
which held just 89 cents at the end of 2010).
Ohio’s
return to fiscal stability has not been lost on outside observers. In
fact, all
three national credit-rating agencies now give Ohio a “stable” credit
outlook.
This improved confidence is not only an indicator of budget stability,
but also
directly impacts the willingness of the markets to purchase bonds
issued by the
State of Ohio, thereby lowering future borrowing costs.
The
Mid-Biennium Review marks a crucial turning point for Ohio. What had
been an
every-other-year cycle of budget and program review is now a
continuous,
business-like process aimed at restraining the growth of state
spending,
improving services for Ohio taxpayers and enhancing the climate of
economic
competitiveness and job growth in our state.
Read this
and other articles at Dayton Business Journal
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