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...
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B&G REPORT.
The B&G Report features newsy items relating to a wide variety of state and local government management topics, including state and local performance audit, state and local performance management, government budgeting, state and local human resource issues, and a variety of other public sector issues.
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greenebarrett
3 min read
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...
greenebarrett
2 min read
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...
greenebarrett
3 min read
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...
greenebarrett
4 min read
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...
greenebarrett
2 min read
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...
greenebarrett
2 min read
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...
greenebarrett
2 min read
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...
greenebarrett
4 min read
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...
greenebarrett
2 min read
Bright Light on the Importance of HR
We’ve seen lots of changes in public sector human resources over the years, but none as startling and transformative as those that...
greenebarrett
3 min read
The Persistent Problem of Poor Data Quality
Back in 2015, we wrote a major feature for Governing magazine titled “The Causes, Cost and Consequence of Bad Government Data.” As far as...
greenebarrett
3 min read
Conflicting Citizen Demands Leads to Disappointment in Government
By Terry McKee, director of procurement at Knoxville’s Community Development Corporation I believe that one of the reasons people...
greenebarrett
4 min read
GUIDELINES FOR BUILDING A POTENT PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
In early 2022, we were honored to join the late Harry Hatry, a pioneer of performance management and a distinguished fellow at the Urban...
greenebarrett
3 min read
Performance-budgeting: Keeping Expectations in Check
We were disheartened, but not surprised by a February 2022 performance audit in Kansas about that state’s use of performance-based...
greenebarrett
3 min read
A Missing Link in Workforce Development: Quality Jobs
We’ve written repeatedly over the years about the many challenges that confront workforce development programs. Back in the early 1990s,...
greenebarrett
3 min read
A Form Isn’t Just Another Form When It Saves People’s Lives
By William Leighty, partner in DecideSmart, LLC, senior strategic advisor to the dean of the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government...
greenebarrett
2 min read
Is “innovation” an overused word in government?
A couple of weeks ago, New York City’s new mayor Eric Adams signed an executive order consolidating all the city’s technology agencies...
greenebarrett
2 min read
Power Not Partisanship
The other day, we came across some news from Washington state about a brewing tug of war between the executive and legislative branches...
greenebarrett
3 min read
WHAT ARISTOTLE KNEW ABOUT STATES AND LOCALITIES THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Aristotle had it right when he wrote, “The more you know, the more you know you don't know.” We’ve come across this idea repeatedly over...
greenebarrett
2 min read
An Audit of Workplace Culture: “I Just Can’t Get Anyone to Listen.”
Often performance audits geared to one agency in one state carry provide lessons for many other governments around the U.S. That’s true...
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