GUEST COLUMN.

I’ve sat in enough budget meetings to know one simple truth: even the most dedicated public officials only have a few minutes – sometimes seconds—to assess each of the hundreds of proposals they’re expected to consider. Every department believes their program matters, every line item is framed as urgent, and almost all of them are competing for the same constrained dollars. In moments like these, when dollars are short, leaders need something more than narrative descriptions and good intentions. They need smart shortcuts.

In Washington, D.C., the best of these shortcuts is affectionately called an “Ocho”, which is Spanish for eight (I’ll explain how that phrase came to pass, in a moment). Sam Quinney, who currently serves as the Director of the Yale for CT initiative at Yale University’s Tobin Center for Economic Policy and previously served as the Director of The Lab @ DC, explained during a recent panel on evidence in budgeting that finding an “Ocho”, and the process that underlies it, emerged from a simple, elegant effort to build quick-to-grasp indicators of evidence, equity, and performance directly into the budget submission process.

Here’s how it works (with more detail here). When a DC agency submits a new or expanded request, they assign it two scores:

·        An evidence score, developed by the Lab @ DC, describing whether the program is supported by none, some, moderate, or strong research.

·        An equity score, developed by the Mayor’s Office of Racial Equity, assessing how well the program advances the city’s equity commitments.

Each score ranges from 0–4 “stars”. So when a proposal earns 4 stars on evidence and 4 stars on equity–or a total score of eight stars–staff jokingly refer to it as an “Ocho”

Why Shortcuts Work

In Route Fifty, I recently wrote about the pressures facing local governments: they’re being asked to do more with less, whether due to expiring federal funds, rising service demands, or limits on their ability to raise revenue. Leaders need tools that help them navigate this reality without sacrificing rigor or values.

Evidence-informed shortcuts aren’t gimmicks; they’re practical decision aids. And we know they work. A recent study found that state legislators were 22 percent more likely to support a program when it carried an “evidence-based” tag than the exact same program was proposed but lacked that label. That’s before they read a full evaluation report, before they dig through performance dashboards—because the label itself gives them a credible starting point.

Results for America’s County Evidence-Based Budgeting Guide makes this process explicit and includes five action steps. Number four is all about bringing evidence indicators into budget decisions—showing effectiveness data right in the budget book so that choices are anchored in what has worked for similar populations, not just on anecdotes, inertia, or vibes. It’s the difference between saying “this program is important” and “this program has a demonstrated record of improving outcomes.”

More Places Are Doing This

Although a leader, D.C. isn’t alone. Across the country, governments are incorporating evidence labels, equity indicators, and performance summaries directly into budget documents:

·        Baltimore County, Maryland integrated evidence information into its ARPA Recovery Plan, giving readers quick insight into which programs rest on strong research.

·        Minnesota embedded evidence indicators into the Governor’s Budget Recommendations—calling out evidence-based practices in workforce programs and other investments.

·        Colorado linked budget items to evidence summaries and evaluation plans in the Governor’s 2023–24 request, offering quick primers on the research behind proposals such as universal pre-K.

Some of these examples use tiers. Some use narrative labels. Some use hyperlinks to evaluation summaries. But the intent is the same: make it easier for leaders to distinguish between programs grounded in evidence and equity and those that are less certain bets.

It Doesn’t Remove Politics—But It Improves the Odds

Let’s be clear: no shortcut eliminates the politics of budgeting. Choices about taxation, service provision, and long-term priorities will always involve values, negotiations, and tradeoffs. But shortcuts help address a real structural challenge: limited time for complex decisions.

When leaders are flipping through binders of proposals late at night, or when a councilmember has two minutes before a vote to understand a program they’ve never heard of, evidence and equity labels offer a focusing mechanism. They don’t determine the outcome—nor should they—but they create a nudge toward programs with a stronger likelihood of impact.

As Sam Quinney put it during the panel, “Every budget decision is fundamentally about opportunity costs: what would happen if we spent these funds on another program, or just returned them to the people?” Good shortcuts help leaders confront those opportunity costs honestly. They don’t guarantee perfect decisions, but they improve the starting point.

A Small Change with Big Potential

In an era of fiscal tightening, governments can’t afford to make decisions in the dark. Smart heuristics—like the Ocho—give decision-makers a clearer sense of where evidence, equity, and performance align. They’re small additions to the budget process, but they have outsized potential to elevate the programs most likely to deliver results for residents.

If we want local governments to do more with less, giving them better shortcuts isn’t optional. It’s essential.

The contents of this Guest Column are those of the author, and not necessarily Barrett and Greene, Inc. 

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