It is high time for some real, practical, and effective budget solutions. The new State Budget Reform Toolkit -a joint project of the American Legislative Exchange Council, Reason Foundation, Americans for Tax Reform, The Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Washington Policy Center, Evergreen Freedom Foundation and State Budget Solutions-provides just that. It offers a practical set of budget management and procurement best practices to guide state policymakers as they work to solve the current budget shortfalls, assisting legislators in prioritizing and more efficiently delivering core government services.
You can get the Toolkit here . Some of the things it covers include :
- Priority-Based Budgeting/Budgeting for Outcomes
- State Pension Reform
- Privatization and Competitive Contracting
- State Tax and Spending Limitations
- Balanced Budget Requirements
- Non-Partisan Revenue Forecasts and Independent Budget Certification
- Performance Assessment and Management
- Performance Audits
- Independent Recovery Audits
- Budget Transparency
- Budget Timeouts
- The Item-Reduction Veto
- Sunset Review Processes for State Agencies, Boards, and Commissions
- State Privatization and Efficiency Councils
- Statewide Real Property Inventories
- State Hiring Freezes
- Restructuring State Retiree Health Care Plans
- Activity-Based Costing
- Employee Incentive/Gainsharing Programs, and more.
Adrian
Adrian
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Dr. Adrian Moore
Vice President
Reason Foundation
(661)477-3107
Have you seen the mess Texas is in? They have a deficit like California but have fewer people to pay for it. The thing that really put California in the hole was Enron stealing billions of dollars from Californians by rigging electricity rates. The state has estimated that it cost Ca. about 10 billion dollars. Add interest and a Governor that was ineffective on top of George Bushes voodoo economics and we are lucky to still have a state at all. At least we now have some leadership in Sacramento that is taking this serious and making the tough decisions. Texas on the other hand, asked for and received more stimulus money from the feds than any other state and still they run a deficit like California. They don't seem to be making the hard choices and it will get ugly there soon. Just what did Texas do with all of that Enron money?
ReplyDeleteYou mean this Texas:
ReplyDeletehttp://gregsebourn.blogspot.com/2010/10/texas-lower-taxes-lower-government.html
California does outperform Texas on a few measures:
State and local property tax burden per capita: California $32.89, Texas $36.50
Sales tax per $1,000 of personal income: California $25.62, Texas $29.47
But on most measures that the study uses, Texas comes out ahead:
State sales tax rate: Texas 6.25%, California 8.25%
Marginal corporate income tax rate: Texas 1% GRT, California 8.84%
Total state and local government expenditures per capita: Texas $7,763.49, California $11,256.83
Average annual growth in government spending: Texas 7.02%, California 7.29%
Recession-related job loss from peak employment to July 2010: Texas, -2.3%, California, -8.7%
“The lighter regulatory burden in Texas also helps its economy flourish in comparison to California, which overloads businesses in the state with excessive costs and burdens,” the 2010 study says.