Getting returns on tax dollars.

• Author: Soglin, Paul R.

With the publication of David E. Osborne and Ted Gaebler's Reinventing Government in 1992, the world of innovation, reform and modernization in the public sector moved from the back-room stacks frequented by accountants, city managers and quality gurus to the front shelves reserved for best sellers.

Among the deluge of recent publications devoted to improving, democratizing and streamlining 21st century government, Deciding for Investment: Getting Returns on Tax Dollars by Jack Brizius and The Design Team of the Alliance of Redesigning Government stands out. As Barbara Dyer, the director of The Alliance for Redesigning Government, notes in the preface, Deciding for Investment (DI) provides "an approach to budgeting that aligns tax dollars with current priorities, keeps resources focused on results, and realizes a return on investment."

Deciding for Investment is creative, challenging and not for the faint of heart looking for a quick fix to today's government innovation-of-the-month problem. It is a workbook that acknowledges the need to go beyond existing budgetary practices in this era of total quality management and measurable standards. With Americans demanding the sometimes contradictory goals from government of greater value for their taxes and an immediate return on the dollar, it is necessary to look further than performance budgeting with its predetermined measurable outcomes.

The authors suggest that investment budgeting be layered over performance budgeting. That is, public officials must not only treat the budget like a performance contract, but they must look at relative rates of return by establishing the value of outcomes.

A sizable section is devoted to "visions and benchmarks." Attention is specifically focused on Oregon's efforts to involve citizens in the establishment of benchmarks emanating from the 1986 efforts by the Oregon Futures Commission to develop a comprehensive plan for Oregon's future. This section, which also explores similar efforts by Governor Lawton Chiles to overhaul the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, provides assurance and comfort to those nervous elected and appointed officials who remain skeptical about opening the budget process to public participation. However, for those looking for a way to prepare a budget with minimal effort, avoiding the always agonizing process of involving the public and staff in a discussion of vision, the creation of a vision statement, and...