"Performance Measurement in State Budgeting: Advancement and Backsliding from 1990 to 1995".

• Position: Review

Lee, Robert D. Jr. and Burns, Robert C.

Public Budgeting and Finance, Spring 2000, pp. 38-53.

The authors of this article examine the use of performance measures among states between 1990 and 1995. A national survey of state practices in performance measurement was used to form a number of indices, designed to summarize states' use of performance measurement. This process led to a number of findings - primarily that although there had been steady growth in the use of performance measurement from 1950 through 1990, the period 1990-95 actually witnessed some decreases (backsliding) in the use of performance measurement. The authors also attempted to regress seven independent variables to a state's use of performance measures. The only significant relationship found was a negative relationship between population and propensity to backslide; that is to say larger states were less likely to backslide during the study period. The survey basically demonstrated that there was no typical level for use of performance measures among the states. However, there were some general tendencies found. In 1995, more tha n half of the states' budgets used effectiveness and/or productivity measures for new or revised...