Missouri

If your job were painting yellow stripes on Missouri highways, you would begin each day knowing precisely how many stripes you were expected to paint. Your boss at the district level would be accountable for the number of miles completed in a timely way, and top-level management would be checking all the work against an ultimate goal: trying to decrease the number of fatalities on the road.

It’s a tiny example — perhaps a trivial-sounding one. But it’s a good metaphor for Missouri’s commitment to setting high-level objectives and then making sure they cascade down to the lowest levels of the organization.

Through Republican and Democratic administrations over the past 20 years, Missouri has been building this kind of capacity to manage with goals and data. It has been particularly successful in education, transportation and health, and particularly programs that deal with drugs and alcohol.

Money B Long-Term Outlook Budget Process Structural Balance Contracting/Purchasing Financial Controls/Reporting People B- Strategic Workforce Planning Hiring Retaining Employees Training and Development Managing Employee Performance Infrastructure B- Capital Planning Project Monitoring Maintenance Internal Coordination Intergovernmental Coordination Information A- Strategic Direction Budgeting for Performance Managing for Performance Program Evaluation Electronic Government • Population (rank): 5,595,211 (17) • Average per capita income (rank):    $29,252 (30) • Total state spending (rank):    $20,840,783,000 (19) • Spending per capita (rank):    $3,676 (42) • Governor: Matt Blunt (R) • First elected: 11/2004 • Senate: 34 members: 11 D, 23 R • Term Limits: 8 years (lifetime) • House: 163 members: 66 D, 97 R • Term Limits: 8 years (lifetime)

The hardest task has been using such information to make better budgeting decisions. The executive branch has been showing progress at this for some time. But the legislature is only beginning to demonstrate signs of real interest. Ironically, this may be one case where management practice benefits from term limits, as a number of the veteran senators who stood in the way of performance budgeting have been term-limited out.

In an effort to reach legislators, Missouri’s executive budget office redesigned the presentation of its performance measures to make them clearer and more understandable. In preparation for a new performance budgeting system that will fully debut for the 2006 budget, the House had a dry-run last year, utilizing performance information for about 25 percent of its budget decisions. Presentations made to the General Assembly focused on outcomes and not just on full-time staff positions and funding. “For the first time, they understood what we meant when we said ‘clean water,’ ” reports Alice Geller, strategic planning coordinator for the Department of Natural Resources.

The new administration, under Republican Governor Matt Blunt, can build on a relatively strong management structure. But it faces a number of tremendous challenges as well. A ballot measure in November had the effect of shifting some motor-fuel and auto-sales tax revenues out of the general fund to the Department of Transportation. This will be phased in, with a $70 million impact in 2006, but by 2009, the DOT will see $187 million more funding, while the general fund will get that much less.

The effect of this switch will be to enlarge a general fund gap that is already serious: The current year’s budget was funded with about $400 million in one-shot revenues that will not be available next time. Meanwhile, Medicaid continues to be a budget-buster. The legislature has consistently underestimated the annual cost of the program, requiring regular supplementals. This year is no different — spending for Medicaid is expected to exceed plans by around $100 million.

Another serious challenge for the state involves the morale and size of its workforce. Employees have received either minimal or non-existent salary increases in recent years. The new governor has talked about wanting to trim middle management and thereby produce greater efficiencies, but it remains to be seen whether this is administratively or politically feasible.

Efficiencies may be difficult to find in some agencies, thanks to a thinning out of analytic capacity. The Medicaid staff has been cut by about 16 percent in recent years, for example, limiting the state’s ability to monitor contracts, ferret out fraud and abuse, and explore cost savings through the use of private insurers. “Those are Medicaid staff that pay for themselves,” says Linda Luebbering, the former state budget director. “Adding them back would actually gain more.”

For additional data and analysis, go to: http://results.gpponline.org/missouri

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