Katherine Barrett & Richard Greene

Recent Articles

• Plugging In
• Mar 1, 2006
• Performance measures are finally being taken out of the box and applied to agency plans and budgets.
• 1 Comments

• Gaming the Numbers
• Jan 1, 2006
• Many of the statistics policy makers use today are set in concrete but made of quicksand.

• Time For A Check Up
• Nov 1, 2005
• An independent performance audit can help an agency deliver services more efficiently and effectively.

• Apples to Umbrellas
• Sep 1, 2005
• Criteria and formulas for basic performance measures are so varied, comparing data from one state to another is often a fruitless exercise.

• Loving a Loser
• Jul 1, 2005
• Award-winning programs usually spawn copycats, but there may be good ideas to replicate from innovative projects that falter.

• Cashing Out
• May 1, 2005
• Our household is just like a state: good at forecasting revenue, but when it comes to expenditures, things get dicier.

• A Balancing Act
• Mar 1, 2005
• Contracting out services can benefit the bottom line, but not always. The trick is to figure out when it does and doesn't.

• The Year of Living Dangerously
• Feb 1, 2005
• "There are some remedies worse than the disease," a playwright wrote more than two millennia ago. Publilius Syrus could have been referring to the current state of the 50 states.

• A Little Less Input, Please
• Jan 1, 2005
• Gathering all the public input you can may sound like a good idea, but it's often more of a pain than a panacea.

• A Mental Case
• Nov 1, 2004
• Even as doubts grow about using performance data in budgeting, mental health agencies provide fresh evidence of the benefits.

• Checking Out Reality
• Sep 1, 2004
• One of the easiest ways to balance a budget is simply to predict savings that may or may not ever come to pass.

• Forward Pass
• Jul 1, 2004
• It's important to understand that five-year forecasts are going to be wrong, but it's good to do them anyway.

• Applauding a Performance
• May 1, 2004
• A new report can help agency officials and lawmakers use performance measures more effectively.

• When Less Is Not More
• Mar 1, 2004
• Some agencies don't gather data that could help them manage better-- because it might make them look bad.

• A Case of Neglect
• Feb 1, 2004
• Why Health Care Is Getting Worse, Even Though Medicine Is Getting Better