This is particularly important because without clear program and policy priorities, governments too often default to across-the-board cuts, which are inefficient and lead to reductions in the most critical programs while continuing to support less-effective services. But while it sounds obvious to say that governments should ensure that their programs and spending are aligned with their priorities, it is harder than it might seem.
In fact, less than one-third of the states have statewide strategic plans with measurable outcome goals. This lack of clear priorities may have lacked urgency in recent years when states had relatively healthy budgets and significant support from the federal government. But when faced with tough decisions in an era of scarce resources, it is vital that limited funding be devoted to the most important priorities. It’s not too late for state and local governments to identify those priorities.
Strategic planning is the traditional cornerstone of government priority-setting. The best strategic plans have clear priorities as well as a strong alignment between these priorities and specific programs that will help reach the desired goals. They also rely on actionable metrics to track results. With this kind of strategic plan in hand, a mayor would be well equipped with a touchstone for making tough programmatic and budget decisions.
A potential weakness of strategic planning is that many people associate it with endless meetings and process overload. But while identifying strategic priorities may have been more complicated in the past, the pandemic surfaced many innovative ways to identify priorities. For example, the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey asked Americans in real time about how the pandemic was impacting their lives.
At the same time, many state and local governments used similar survey tools as well as virtual town halls, community meetings and social media to quickly gather information that helped inform government priorities, identify effective programs and focus on key implementation considerations. One of the most important innovations during the pandemic was broadening engagement to gather information from community members about their priorities.
For example, San Antonio, Texas, did extensive multilingual outreach through online surveys and social media feedback tools as well as radio, television and print advertising to gather resident feedback. Cook County, Ill., engaged with community nonprofit organizations and conducted an interactive survey. This kind of approach allows mayors, county leaders and governors to ensure that the government’s priorities align with the needs of their constituents.
Once state and local governments have developed their top policy priorities, they must ensure that their programs are being delivered in ways that align with those priorities. One way to do this is to conduct regular reviews of programs through the lens of their strategic plans and community-identified concerns.
Often known as “stat” meetings, these gatherings bring together the governor or mayor with senior agency officials for a meeting where they review program performance data. Through this process, government leaders are able to identify opportunities for program improvement, deepen collaboration and identify unmet needs.
Another promising approach to aligning spending to priorities is happening in Pennsylvania. There, the governor’s budget and policy offices are leading the Resource Evaluation and Mission Alignment Project (REMAP). The state describes REMAP as “a data-driven initiative designed to evaluate programs for effectiveness and alignment with statutory mandates, strategic goals, and the department’s mission.” In other words, the project is designed to make sure that state funds are going to programs that deliver measurable results.
As a result of REMAP’s work, the governor’s budget proposed to streamline redundant tax credit programs and replace them with a single program focused on job creation, a top priority for the state. By aligning state priorities to spending, REMAP is a non-political and commonsense approach to improving government efficiency and using tax dollars effectively.
Most fundamentally in this era, the budget process also provides a key opportunity to ensure that top-priority areas are receiving sufficient funding — and to identify which programs are not aligned with priorities or are not delivering on results. A strong example is Tennessee’s budget instructions, which require agencies’ spending proposals to provide a clear link among the state’s priorities, agency strategic plans, spending requests and evidence of effectiveness. North Carolina is taking a similar strategic approach but with the helpful addition of creating a new chief operating officer position for the state, providing central leadership to the task of improving state operations.
In sum, state and local governments need to have clear priorities so they can focus their spending on their most important programs in a time of limited funding. These priorities can be developed through a traditional strategic planning process or by using innovative tools to engage community members. Either way, it is crucial to align these priorities with specific programs and performance data to make sure they are delivering on the desired goals.
Jed Herrmann provides budget and program implementation consulting services to state and local governments. He previously served as a senior official at the U.S. Treasury Department and the White House Office of Management and Budget, designing and implementing trillions of dollars of programs focused on state and local governments.
Governing’s opinion columns reflect the views of their authors and not necessarily those of Governing’s editors or management.
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