B&G Report

State Investments: Higher Returns vs. Other Benefits

Mar 28, 2022
2 min

State Investments: Higher Returns vs. Other Benefits

When states invest money, whether for their pension plans or other purposes, to what extent is it sensible for them to trade potentially better returns on their money in exchange for other benefits, including social good or economic development? We’ve heard arguments on both sides of this discussion and have come to the conclusion that there may be no simple answers, and that this question may likely best be considered on a case-by-case basis. We first began to think about th

Want to Get Your Story Out? Five Tips for Public Sector Officials

greenebarrett

Mar 24, 2022
4 min

Want to Get Your Story Out? Five Tips for Public Sector Officials

Over the course of years, we’ve given speeches about a variety of topics -- ranging from human resources to performance management to budgeting. But whatever the nature of the talk, when it’s time for Q&A, eventually someone asks us something like this: “There’s so much good happening in our government. How come the press never seems interested in anything but bad news?” First, we suggest in a transparently self-serving way, that if people want to get out important news about

Is Michigan Misspending Medicaid Dollars? A Battle Between Auditor and Agency.

greenebarrett

Mar 22, 2022
3 min

Is Michigan Misspending Medicaid Dollars? A Battle Between Auditor and Agency.

The Michigan Office of the Auditor General (OAG) recently came out with a scathing performance audit about the state’s Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance (CHIP) programs. With some 2.8 million people in the state enrolled in Medicaid and another 237,500 in CHIP, this is a matter of serious concern, not just to recipients but to Michigan residents who don’t want their tax money wasted. But beyond the actual audit findings, we found the back and forth between the agency

California’s Powerful Example of Citizen Participation

greenebarrett

Mar 21, 2022
2 min

California’s Powerful Example of Citizen Participation

We often talk about performance auditors on this website. These dedicated professionals may be appointed or elected. They use well-accepted auditing standards to assess risks, uncover management problems and gauge how well programs perform, providing valuable insight and oversight throughout the country. Then there’s California. In addition to the traditional kind of performance auditing, which takes place in many of the state’s cities, and counties, it also has an unusual ap

Portland's New Review of its Audit Recommendations

greenebarrett

Mar 17, 2022
1 min

Portland's New Review of its Audit Recommendations

Performance auditors frequently do a very good job at holding agencies in their states, cities and counties accountable, by doing careful analysis and frequently making recommendations. But how many of those recommendations are actually implemented, and how many wind up as nothing more than well-intentioned suggestions (rather like the New Year's resolutions people make to lose 30 pounds in the next year)? Many entities do reviews of recommendations and the city of Portland,

greenebarrett

Mar 16, 2022
1 min

A little perspective. . . .

As we say on the home page of this website, we are "dedicated to state and local government." Notwithstanding that, we feel awkward about going about our day-to-day work as though the world was in a "business-as-usual" mode. It's not. We at Barrett and Greene, Inc (which is to say Katherine and Rich) want to speak from our hearts, and say -- like millions of others have said: "Our hopes and wishes go to the valiant people of Ukraine. May they soon know peace and freedom." Cr

Government Ethos Can be Just as Important as Statutes

greenebarrett

Mar 16, 2022
3 min

Government Ethos Can be Just as Important as Statutes

It often feels as though the Holy Grail of government management is to have some process or procedure written into statute. That’s the only way, the presumption goes, to be sure that a new management idea is actually implemented and, presumably, supported with cash. In fact, over the decades of observing the ebb and flow of management efforts in state and local governments, we’ve seen that often the ethos or culture of an organization is just as important as the statutes it p

greenebarrett

Mar 15, 2022
2 min

Understanding Understaffing

In the many performance audits we read each year, a common recurring problem is staff capacity. While this isn’t a new issue, we're confident that it will get increasing attention in coming months – an outgrowth of the nearly universal problem that state and local government entities currently have with escalating turnover and declining job applications (two topics we’ve recently written about for Route Fifty). Understaffing is one frequently cited reason for tardy reports or

greenebarrett

Mar 10, 2022
3 min

Seven things that tick us off

As anyone who is following our website knows, we write for a great many other publications and organizations, including Route Fifty, the Government Finance Research Center, the Government Finance Review, the IBM Center for the Business of Government and more. We’ve been privileged to have a fair amount of latitude in the topics we cover for these outlets, but we’d never get away with writing a piece that has the title this blog item does. Truth is that every few days, in the

greenebarrett

Mar 8, 2022
4 min

The Scourge of Abandoned Properties

by Alan Mallach, senior fellow at the Center for Community Progress and author of The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s paper “The Empty House Next Door.” There are millions of abandoned properties in America, and they’re a symptom of an economy and a housing market which is comfortable with the idea of leaving large parts of America behind. They are mostly found in the hearts of older cities, like Cleveland or Detroit, or in rural areas, like Appalachia or the Plains states

Problems with Performance Reporting: A Vermont Critique

greenebarrett

Mar 7, 2022
2 min

Problems with Performance Reporting: A Vermont Critique

We’ve been watching city, state and county efforts at performance reporting for many years, and we know it’s hard to do. We applaud the governments that have moved forward aggressively in publicizing the results of programs -- whether they are good or bad. But even though we're fans of performance reporting, and the courage it takes to do it, that doesn't mean it's unproblematic. We bring this up because we just read an investigative report that was issued by Douglas Hoffer

B&G's Guide to Government Organization News

greenebarrett

Mar 4, 2022
2 min

B&G's Guide to Government Organization News

We frequently track the work of government membership associations, one of the best ways to see what state and local decision-makers and appointees in a wide variety of fields are talking about. These are the places that top officials share challenges, solutions and news of their fields with one another. The output of these organizations tend to be a bit siloed, however. With everyone short on time, we’re not sure that budget directors pay leisurely visits to websites designe

Who’s Running the Governmental Show? It Matters!

greenebarrett

Mar 3, 2022
2 min

Who’s Running the Governmental Show? It Matters!

We like to think that we’re pretty sophisticated in most things pertaining to states and localities. But when we drive through our little town of Bethel, Connecticut, we can’t tell you who actually owns and maintains any individual road. Is it the state or the town? We can tell you for sure that it’s not the county, because Connecticut eliminated any responsibilities for counties years ago (right now, they’re pretty much just geographic lines on the map). That makes things a

Cutting Grocery Taxes: Good Politics, Bad Tax Policy

greenebarrett

Mar 1, 2022
4 min

Cutting Grocery Taxes: Good Politics, Bad Tax Policy

By David Brunori, research professor of public policy at The George Washington University and Senior Director at RSM US LLP There have been a lot of calls to eliminate or reduce sales taxes on groceries. In the past couple of months, governors and legislators in at least seven states have made such proposals. Indeed, the governors of Virginia, Maryland, Kansas, and Illinois have made cutting food taxes a priority in their budgets. This is not new or surprising; 32 states al