A good, hard look: rigorous review of how state government operates is gaining ground in legislatures.

• Author: Boulard, Garry
• Position: Cover story

A Utah commission wants to take a hard look at the very essentials of state government: What it does, how well it does it and whether it can continue to do it in the same manner.

"Economic conditions have forced many states to realize that they are either going to have to find some more revenue somewhere or no longer do some of the things they have been doing," says Gayle McKeachnie, a former legislator and lieutenant governor in Utah, where the budget deficit is pegged at some $279 million for FY 2010.

McKeachnie was recently appointed to the Utah Advisory Commission to Optimize State Government, a body formed by Governor Gary Herbert with the mission of looking for ways to improve efficiency, effectiveness and performance.

"We need to be thinking more seriously about how to reduce costs by reducing government," McKeachnie says. "I think we have done as much as we can when it comes to eliminating unnecessary expenses."

He says the commission will look at consolidating agencies and privatizing functions of state government such as prisons and state parks.

CHANCE FOR CHANGE

Such state-level initiatives to make government more efficient come during one of the worst national downturns in American history. The effort in Utah is part of a larger movement by legislators and other state officials to reduce expenditures in the face of record budget gaps. Across the country, state legislators and governors have been addressing budget challenges by reconfiguring government and reducing agencies. Some see the economic crisis as an opportune time to push for structural changes.

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"We need to think about re-engineering and reinventing the way we deliver government services," says Minnesota Senator Terri Bonoff. Earlier this year, she proposed that the more than 340 separate school districts in her state engage in cooperative purchasing for items valued at more than $25,000--rather than negotiate for the best price on their own--based on the theory that the state government already has a Department of Administration and its job it is to get the best price.

Bonoff's bill was passed in the Minnesota Senate but died in the House. Even so, she says, "The downturn gives all of us a chance to really look at how our government structures are designed, and to question models that are more than 50 years old."

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Utah Representative Ron Bigelow thinks reinventing how the state delivers services "may mean eliminating some...