Grading the States introduction THE GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE PROJECT Report Card: Connecticut GOVERNOR John G. Rowland (Republican, elected 1994) LEGISLATURE House — 100 Democrats, 51 Republicans Senate — 21 Democrats, 15 Republicans FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT: C There have been some improvements in Connecticut’s financial picture. After years in which the accumulated deficit kept going up, it’s now gone down a bit; the state is taking in more money than it’s spending. It keeps a close eye on the fiscal impact of legislation, which should help keep that balance. Year-end surplus money has been used appropriately for one-time rather than recurring expenditures, and there is a healthy rainy day fund. Now the other side: Although the deficit has gone down slightly, it’s still over $600 million, according to GAAP accounting, even after nine years of surpluses. The way Connecticut accounts for its budget doesn’t show this, but only because the state uses very liberal practices that book revenues at a faster rate than expenditures. The state’s controller has been calling for an end to the practice, and legislation was passed to accomplish it, but implementation has been delayed. Passing laws and ignoring them seems to be a habit in Connecticut. Government has a spending cap, but the governor regularly issues a “declaration of extraordinary circumstances” and exceeds it. The Teachers’ Retirement Fund is supposed to be funded at 100 percent of total current costs, but year after year, it stops at 85 percent. The state’s unfunded liabilities of $3.2 billion for teachers and $4.3 billion for state employees “are sort of ticking time bombs,” says Bob Harris, director of the legislature’s non-partisan Office of Fiscal Analysis. CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: B- Transportation is a hot issue in Connecticut. A recent summit of state and municipal officials, business leaders and citizens agreed that transportation should be used more effectively as an economic development tool, and that better statewide planning was needed. Now a Transportation Strategy Board is working to develop criteria against which future transportation projects will be chosen. At least half of the facilities budget goes for repair and renovation, and the state depends increasingly on outsourcing for its maintenance needs. Transportation maintenance has been well done for the past decade. But an important element of effective maintenance is missing: a statewide inventory of assets. A 1999 State Auditor’s report singled out the absent database. Some agencies do a reasonable job of tracking their own property, but centralized information would greatly improve the process of planning for, consolidating and maintaining buildings. HUMAN RESOURCES: C Connecticut has a relatively high employee-turnover rate, especially compared with neighboring Massachusetts and New York. Vacancies in nursing and corrections have become increasingly worrisome. What’s more, the existence of a limited hiring freeze means that time-consuming approvals are needed to fill positions. Personnel rules mandate that all advertised jobs must be posted in newspapers in all congressional districts, and this further delays the process. Recruitment has been stepped up a good deal to help, and agencies have hiring flexibility, but the whole process still takes too long. The state has a comprehensive new evaluation program for managers, which ties strongly to agency goals and strategic planning. But it’s being rolled out slowly, and is currently in use only for about one out of 10 managers. Performance appraisal for other workers is generally weak. Connecticut is making good inroads in work-force planning, and there has been a concerted effort to make careers in state government more attractive to young professionals. Right now, though, the effort is marred by poor data, and personnel managers await the arrival of a new HR information system. MANAGING FOR RESULTS: C- For years, Connecticut’s efforts at managing for results have been less than stellar. The 1999-2001 budget does include a list of very broad statewide goals, and cites agency goals and activities that are supposed to contribute to the higher-level effort. But these are linked to spending rather than performance targets. Agency-level information in the budget also lacks any systematic reporting of performance measures. There is some evidence of progress toward strategic planning in the agencies. Of 65 agencies that participated in a recent survey, 30 had a plan that discussed initiatives or major activities for the coming year, or recommended spending adjustments. The quality and usefulness of the plans obviously varies. But at least there’s some effort being made at that level. Still, it’s probably unrealistic to expect major breakthroughs without a commitment from central leadership. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: C+ A couple of years ago, Connecticut decided to solve many of its IT problems with an outsourcing deal. When that fell through, the status of the state’s antiquated information systems was bleak. But managers learned enough from the outsourcing fiasco to begin making real improvements on their own. “From the vendors,” says CIO Rock Regan, “we got a number of new strategies in how to deliver. When they came up with solutions that were good ideas, we implemented them.” The state has been making progress in four major areas: consolidation, centralization, standardization and accountability. Moreover, financial and human resource IT systems are being replaced with a $70 million phased-in program. The state still has notable procurement problems. It recently put together a state police radio system that had its origin in efforts made during the early 1980s. “We just haven’t made long strides in procurement reform,” says Regan. “We have pretty good legislation that allows us a lot of flexibility, but we haven’t been good at implementing a lot of that flexibility.” AVERAGE GRADE: C Copyright © 2001, Congressional Quarterly, Inc. Reproduction in any form without the written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Governing, City & State and Governing.com are trademarks of Congressional Quarterly, Inc.