FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
Cash management: The way a state invests and otherwise handles the money in its treasury. Good cash management means investing available dollars to achieve good returns with an acceptable amount of risk, and maintaining effective oversight in the process.
Cost accounting: The effort to calculate the expense associated with delivering a unit of service: maintaining one inmate in a maximum-security prison, for example.
Fiscal note: An addendum, often attached to a spending bill, that shows the legislature how much money the program or project will likely cost in future years.
GAAP: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. This body of uniform accounting standards is promulgated by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, and allows for comparability between states.
One-time revenue: Money that comes into a state from a non-repeating source: the sale of an asset, for example. Ideally, one-time revenues should be used to pay for one-time expenses, not continuing budgetary needs.
Rainy day fund (sometimes called a contingency fund): Reserves that a state sets aside to be used in the event of recession or other fiscal surprises.
Structural balance: A state should bring in more revenue than it spends each year. If it defies this rule year after year, it is not in structural balance.
CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
Deferred maintenance: The backlog of projects that has accumulated over time.
Major maintenance: Large-scale projects to repair and rehabilitate buildings that have significant problems. Major-maintenance funding can come out of operating budgets but often comes out of capital budgets instead.
Routine maintenance: Upkeep on buildings that should be done on a regular basis. Routine maintenance nearly always comes out of operating budgets.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Certified list: Many states provide their agencies with limited lists of applicants for job openings; they often include three, five or 10 names (states with such lists are then referred to as having a “rule of three,” “rule of five,” etc.).
Pay for performance: A means of tying employee pay levels to the quality of work delivered.
Work-force planning: An effort to predict future personnel needs and to make sure those needs will be met.
MANAGING FOR RESULTS
Benchmarks: Goals that states set for themselves, against which actual results are later compared.
Input measures: The simple measurement of resources used to deliver a product or service.
Output measures: Measures that focus on the quantity of work delivered by a project or program. The number of measles inoculations given in a state each year is an example of an output measure.
Outcome measures: Measures that focus on the results, rather than the quantity of work, delivered by a project or program. The decline in measles cases resulting from inoculations is an outcome measure.
Performance budgeting: An attempt to tie funding of a program to its demonstrated effectiveness and efficiency.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Architecture: The overall set of standards in place in a state.
Data warehouse: A computer system that acts as a storage closet for information, making data easily available to managers.
GIS: Software that enables the overlay of large quantities of data on a geographic basis.
Legacy system: A computer system dating from a time prior to the installation of new technology.
Wide-area network: A computer network that permits many entities in a state to communicate with minimal effort.
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