Virginia’s two gubernatorial candidates, Creigh Deeds and Bob McDonnell, vow to get more bang for the taxpayers’ buck. Deeds touts his plan to promote “government efficiency and budget reform” while the McDonnell platform promises to root out “waste, fraud and abuse.”
Dig into the specifics and you’ll see some decent ideas. Both Deeds and McDonnell would institute regular performance audits of Virginia state agencies. (Deeds’ audits would cut across government functions, a nice touch.) Deeds also backs zero-based budgeting, energy efficiency in government buildings, steering more education dollars into the classroom and reforming VITA. McDonnell serves up an interesting idea on setting up a pay-for-performance pilot program for state managers.
There’s nothing to dislike here, and I hope the new governor, whomever he is, carries through. But we’ve been down this road before. Does anybody remember the “Warner commission”? Does anyone recall that Virginia, for all the flaws so manifest to us who live here, has been consistently rated either No. 1 or No. 2 as the best managed state in the country for years? By the (admittedly low) standards of state governments around the country, Virginia does not have a lot of waste, fraud and abuse. By the time Gov. Tim Kaine and the General Assembly finish whacking an estimated $1.3 billion out of next year’s budget, they’ll be scrounging nickels out of soft drink change dispensers.
It’s always a good idea to keep a close eye on payroll and process improvements, but let’s not deceived. We won’t find big money in cutting government administration. We need to dig a lot deeper. Here are the real drivers of the state budget (FY 2009 numbers):
Medicaid – $ 2,7 billion (General Fund only)
Corrections – $1.0 billion (General Fund)
Transportation – $4.6 billion (non-General Fund)
K-12 schools – $5.6 billion (General Fund, direct aid to localities)
We can’t bring these numbers under control by tinkering on the margins of expenses. We have to think through the programs from the ground up. In future posts, we’ll see how Deeds and McDonnell are doing in that regard.