SAVE Commission's findings - La Follette School of Public Affairs ...

17.14—Prohibit proxy voting.
17.16—Require public hearings on all bills before
a floor vote. Legislative prerogative—rules in each house
should dictate.
18.6—Rename a the Department of Licensing. The
Department of Regulation and Licensing provides direct
regulation and licensing of certain occupations and activities
with and through the boards attached to the department.
18.7—Transfer responsibility for serious juvenile
offenders to the Department of Corrections. There are
several studies presently reviewing the juvenile code.
Therefore this recommendation is premature and lacks
appropriate study.
20.1—Establish pilot projects and a new management
system by July 1, 1997. The concept is valid but
the implementation and related costs are enormous. Planning
and programming budgeting (performance based
budgeting) was tried in the late 1960s and early 1970s
but perished on its own. The idea was not embraced by
either the executive or legislative branch.
The notion that the Legislature should be interested
in “results” rather than costs is very naive. Legislators
have to be concerned about a balanced budget. Furthermore,
legislators may be troubled by losing their legislative
check on agency spending.
Performance budgeting is easy to define, but difficult
to implement. Legislators and agency heads must
agree on performance targets and measures and the information
must be readily available and useful.
I suggest the following: 1) DOA could review the
present state budgeting system for potential improvement.
Currently, a statewide accounting system is being implemented.
This, along with the statewide payroll system
that has been completed and oversight by the Secretary
of DOA, accomplishes some of the goals of performance
based budgeting. (The State of Florida is considering revamping
a version of “performance-based budgeting”
agency by agency over the next seven years). 2) The Legislative
Audit Bureau could increase program evaluations.
Thomas Hefty:
Withholds support for Action number: 10.4.
Although the SAVE Commission report is an excellent
vision statement for Wisconsin, it lacks the specific
savings recommendations that many would have
expected. That lack of detail reflects the actions by state
agencies. Rather than provide fiscal estimates, agencies
lobbied to save their programs.
Two issues in particular deserve attention. The first
is the relationship between federal, state and local governments.
The report makes a strong statement to aggressively
seek relief from federal mandates. The statements
on local mandates are far more timid. With regard
to receipt of federal dollars, Wisconsin ranks 49th of 50
states. Moving up just ten rankings would provide $300
million in new state funds.
The second issue is welfare reform, a topic high
on the national agenda. Although the report addresses
those issues, it lacks a focus on the failings of the system
and the cost to society. During hearings, the testimony
indicated that the typical child has three or four different
social workers. This not only is inefficient but provides
little value to the child. There already are excellent models
of focusing social service accountability in a single
agency, such as Lutheran Social Services.
The duplication in effort also can be addressed by
the simple elimination of agencies that have outlived their
original purpose. Wisconsin has three youth conservation
programs. Today, with a robust economy, the Wisconsin
Conservation Corps, the largest of the three, must
resort to conscripting state prisoners to fill its positions.
Finally, the best social service is a good job. New
state jobs should be put into areas of high unemployment.
George Kaiser:
Withholds support for Actions numbered: 5.1, 10.2(a),
18.9 and 18.18 (DNR/DATCP).
I have dissented from several recommendations—
5.1 because I believe 5 percent is too large a withholding
and because I believe the basis for return of dollars should
be more substantive—for example, by matching local
investments creating cooperation or by matching savings
realized through cooperative efforts.
Recommendation 10.2a implies our voc. tech system
needs change. Elected boards are like “motherhood,”
but the present system is one of the best in the country—don’t
fix it if it ain’t broke!
Regarding cabinet government. I believe that the
DNR, the DATCP and the new Department for Education
should all have boards rather than gubernatorial
appointed Secretaries in order to maintain a strong system
of checks and balances between legislative/executive
branches of government as well as between political
parties.
The recommendations relating to a new management
system and to changing the civil service system are
extremely important and will have strong cost savings
implications long term. I strongly believe that the absence
of a comprehensive system of comparing civil service
pay, including all fringe benefits, with the private sector
is a serious weakness in the present system which
needs to be corrected and I recognize that it will show
both under and overpayment of employee job classifications.
I also share the concern of other commissioners
that too many jobs are concentrated in Madison and efforts
should be made to place state jobs in areas of higher
unemployment, such as was done in Milwaukee with
the DNR District office.
Thomas Lyon:
Withholds support for Action number: 18.18.
Although inadequate time and staff size placed substantial
constraints on embellishing and detailing some
recommendations of the SAVE Commission, I believe the
report can make a major contribution toward initiating
debate and providing direction in enhancing the respon-
76 CITIZEN • COMMUNITY • GOVERNMENT — WISCONSIN: THE 21 ST CENTURY